What's New in the Orchard

Documentation at The Maine Heritage Orchard: 2/1/15

The best thing for us fruit enthusiasts to do during the chilly months is to cozy up by the woodstove and dream of apples. In recent weeks, we've finalized our list of varieties to be planted in the orchard this Spring. Now we are creating a record for each apple variety in the orchard. What is the record made up of? Well, there is more of a story behind each apple than you may have guessed. Every variety has its own history; where it came from and who first cultivated it. Us Mainers want to know how it got to Maine and where it grew successfully in the state. Is the tree hardy? Vigorous?  Disease resistant or susceptible? Will the tree grow to be very upright, droopy, or spreading? What does the apple look like? And most importantly: what does it taste like? When is it ripe? How is it best used? Does it taste better fresh, cooked, or in cider? Will it be sweeter in February than when we picked it fresh off the tree?

For many of the heritage apples, we can readily answer these questions from firsthand experience. But over the years, other varieties have fallen to the wayside and are now little grown and so rare that the body of knowledge surrounding them, especially at the firsthand level, has been lost.  One goal of the heritage orchard is to excavate and re-build that forgotten culture. Because back when we had an agricultural economy, there really was a rich culture surrounding apples and apple diversity.

In the 19th century in Maine, the typical home was a homestead; every family grew their own food and everyone had a small home orchard. Folks were discovering their own tasty and useful varieties out of both necessity and fun. It's simply what you did. When your neighbor had a particularly delectable apple, you grafted it into your own orchard and so did other neighbors. Each town had its favorite varieties that would then be swapped with communities in other towns and counties. Out of this tradition grew a regional market for apples and later, an export market.

We can think of the 19th century as the bridge between the homesteads and family run farms of traditional agriculture and the highly commercial and global system of agriculture that we are a part of today.  While the practice of homesteading retained its deep roots, urban populations and the need to transport food into cities, grew. It was a prosperous time for apples, apple growers, and nurserymen; an orchardist could make good money growing fruit. The bigger the business became, the more of a need there was for orchardists to grow a specific kind of apple. A good, marketable apple was pretty, stored well, and was durable enough to make the long journey from Maine down to Boston or overseas to England. There became a need for research on and classification of apple varieties. Up popped the scholars that would take on the task of collecting and recording all the apple varieties of a region.

It is these apple guides or pomological texts that we consult to learn more about a particular variety or to use in identifying a suspected heirloom. Books like S.A. Beach's "The Apples of New York," Downing's "Fruit and Fruit Trees of America," or Bradford's "The Apples of Maine" are a real treat to read. These guys wrote about hundreds of different apples with care and detail. The level of observation is rarely matched today. Their books have been our blueprint to tracking down old varieties in Maine. They have also helped us remember what kinds of questions we want to be asking about apples as a food and a crop, as we seek out better flavor and growing practices. By creating a modern record of Maine's apples we are picking up where their work left off: just before varietal diversity in New England and the greater US really took the plunge. We are currently compiling information for each apple in the Heritage Orchard using old literature and observations from the few people growing these varieties today. There is still so much missing. We look forward with anticipation to when the Unity orchard trees mature. At that time we'll have a centralized location where we can observe each apple in real time. How do these apples really taste? Will climate change affect some varieties' ability to thrive? What are the old texts missing about the apples' performance in the kitchen, in cider, or in the cellar? Only time will tell.

By Abbey Verrier, Heritage Orchard research assistant

Become an Apple Tree Steward: 1/15

Now that winter is here, you've undoubtedly been perusing every seed and nursery catalog you can get your hands on, eager to plan for that time when the ground has thawed. Have you considered planting an heirloom apple tree? One unique way to add to your garden, orchard, farm, or backyard is by purchasing a tree from the Maine Heritage Orchard stewardship program. The stewardship program was devised to make “back-ups” available of all the rare varieties in the Heritage Orchard. You buy one or several trees and then fill out a form letting us know where you planted it (anywhere you'd like). If something happens to our Heritage Orchard specimen, we can call you for the backup grafting wood necessary to propagate new trees.

Become a steward and help put Maine's heirloom apples back into Maine's communities! We don’t want the Heritage Orchard to be a museum. We want it to be a vehicle for repopulating Maine with a wide diversity of classic fruit. We’re offering these apple trees through the Fedco Trees catalog this year. Sixty percent of the purchase price of each tree helps fund the Maine Heritage Orchard. For more information on the stewardship program, see page 19 of the 2015 Fedco Trees catalog or visit http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/.

Conservation Farm of the Year: 12/14

We are delighted to announce that the Waldo Soil and Water Conservation District has made MOFGA the Conservation Farm of the Year for its work on the Maine Heritage Orchard. Our first season growing trees and perennial plants on the property is now successfully behind us. For decades, the Heritage Orchard site was subject to gravel mining. A steep and sandy basin of nutrient-depleted land was all that was left when we acquired the property. Gravel mining removes all of the flora, topsoil, and the subsoil gravel from an area. The place was practically barren of vegetation when we got it. A lot of work went into transforming the steep slopes of the gravel pit into a network of terraces before it was even possible to plant trees that could thrive there. MOFGA has since been investigating ways to re-build the soil and create a place that can sustain agriculture and wildlife once again. Next Spring we will plant another 80 heirloom fruit trees as well as many more perennial plants. These perennials are beneficial to the trees, soil-building efforts, and in attracting bees and other insects to the orchard. We hope the Maine Heritage Orchard will be a model for other agricultural and land conservation efforts. And we hope this recognition will motivate others to get involved in preserving heirloom apples and in bringing this place back to life.

Black Oxford apples The Maine Heritage Orchard is a ten-acre preservation orchard on the MOFGA grounds in Unity. Unlike any other orchard in the state, it will be home to over 500 different apple and pear varieties traditionally grown in Maine. We planted the first 100 trees in April of 2014 and will plant about 100 more each spring until we reach our goal. The varieties included in the collection date back to a time when most Mainers lived on farms and every farm had a small orchard of locally adapted selections. Many of these varieties are now on the verge of extinction.   The Maine Heritage Orchard is under the direction of MOFGA’s John Bunker, a nationally recognized expert in historic fruit. With the help of other agricultural historians, numerous "old timers" and hundreds of apple enthusiasts from around the state, John has assembled a unique collection of heritage fruit over the past thirty years. In an ongoing, state-wide treasure hunt for Maine’s ancient fruit trees, well over two hundred varieties have been identified and saved.   As the trees mature, fruit and grafting scions will be available for generations to come. Historical and cultural information on each variety will be widely accessible for the first time in over a century. The orchard is managed using innovative, organic orchard practices. It is planted on a terraced reclaimed gravel pit. Beds of beneficial perennial plants are interspersed with the trees. It is a learning laboratory that will be a model for backyard growers, orchardists, and agricultural educators. There are numerous ways to get involved with the Maine Heritage Orchard. Volunteer work days are held throughout the growing season. Stayed tuned to the MOFGA website for dates or contact us at apples@mofga.org.

The Maine Heritage Orchard 2014 – Our first Year in the Ground
In April, we planted the first 100 apple trees in the Heritage Orchard. Volunteers of all ages put on their work boots and dug some holes.		A view of the terraces on planting day.
Our perennial companion plantings (foreground) flourished in late summer.		In September, we laid jute netting over a cover crop seeding to renovate the next section of the gravel pit site.
Apprentices Laura and Natalie continued the search for old apples in Maine.		Thank you for your help in making the Heritage Orchard a reality!