April 29, 2025

Today in the orchard

Mike, John and Jeff planting apple tree at the Blaine House, April 29, 2025

This was the warmest day so far in 2025. I took three apple trees to the Governor’s residence, the Blaine House, in Augusta and planted them in the small Maine apple orchard we’ve been creating over the past few years. The goal is to have 16 apple trees, one representing each county of the state. Today it was Lincoln, Penobscot and Somerset Counties. Thirteen down and three more counties to go. I was assisted by Jeff and Mike who work at the Blaine House for Governor Mills. The three of us planted Sasanoa (Lincoln County), Royal Sweet (Penobscot County) and Gray Pearmain (Somerset County). In the next year or two we’ll complete the collection. Having an orchard of Maine varieties in Augusta at the Governor’s house is just one more way that apples connect us around the state and around the world.

Gray Pearmain likely originated in Skowhegan. It is an excellent dessert (fresh eating) apple that actually tastes like a pear. It was introduced to me by Steve and Marilyn Meyerhans of The Apple Farm on the Skowhegan-Fairfield line. It was introduced to them by Royal Wentworth who owned the orchard before them. It has become a popular variety in a number of orchards and backyards around the state and beyond.

The Royal Sweet scionwood came from a spectacular, massive, old tree growing at Rollins Orchard in Garland. It is one of the largest apple trees in Maine. The Rollins specimen may be the original tree of the variety. The fruit itself is a true ‘sweet’ (low-acid) apple that ripens in late summer. It was introduced to me by Ernest Rollins. In October 1894 Royal Sweet apples were submitted to the USDA watercolor project by J.M. Stone of Garland. It is likely those apples came from this tree. 

Sasanoa is from near “the Basin” in Phippsburg, south of Bath. DNA shows it matches the famous winter cooking variety, Rhode Island Greening, making it apparently a local coastal Maine sport (mutation) of the original ‘RIG’. Unlike RIG, the skin is electric green and russet. The same apple grows only a few miles away as the crow flies in Boothbay. The name was coined by Barry Rodrigue who found the ancient tree and introduced it to me.

April 28, 2025

Today in the orchard

First ‘Red Tip’ leaves Finley Lane April 2025

It warmed up today like it was time for big-time growing to begin. Even the trees are about to—as Rumi put it— “recall being green again.” Unlike us, however, the trees have not “forgotten [their] former states.” They know what it’s like to be green, and they love it. So I hustled down to Finley Lane with my clipboard and cataloged the trees and their leaf-emergence progress. The overall assessment is that we are not yet at “quarter-inch green.” Quarter inch green is when the young leaves are—you got it—a quarter inch in size. Right now about a third are still dormant, about a third are just beginning to show green (call it 1/8”) and about a third are a quarter or more. Some are putting on serious growth, actually approaching 1/2”. These include several of the red-leafed apples such as Redford, Redfield, Oporto and Hatchet Mountain. Of the green-leafed cultivars, the early ones include Bastian Crab, Hewe’s Virginia Crab, Novosibirski, Trailman and Transcendent Crab. Our two Malus ioensis, Kola and Red Tip, are also leafing out early. 

Friends came to visit late in the day, and we were comfortable sitting out on the lawn until nearly dark. Before they left this morning they picked nettles to take home to dry for next winter’s tea.    

April 26, 2025

Today in the orchard

Green again

Today we got an all-day April shower, more than an inch and a half. The ducks loved it. The plants too. We took the opportunity to celebrate Beltane with a few good friends. Beltane is an ancient Celtic celebration of the beginning of summer, usually held on about May 1, halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Most years we sit around an outdoor fire and share thoughts and readings, then retire after dark to the dining table for a late potluck supper. This year the rain kept us indoors but it was still a perfect evening to celebrate spring. The readings were excellent and the company, the best. Here’s brief reading from the evening:

“We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states. Except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.”

Rumi

April 25, 2025

Today in the orchard

Amere de Berthecourt 

We continued planting new trees in the Finley Lane Orchard. We planted a second Amere de Berthecourt and a “Jim Martin #11.” Amere de Berthecourt is a French bitter cider apple that has done very well in our orchard. It made sense to plant a second tree. “Jim Martin #11” is an ancient, unidentified apple from an old twenty-tree farm-orchard in Falmouth, ME. Jim Martin grew up on the farm but moved away many years ago. He’s gotten to know the current owners and now has a goal of replicating the orchard at his home in western Maine. Over the past few years I’ve been grafting everything he’s got. The orchard wraps around the large, stately farmhouse. #11 is one of the oldest and the most interesting of the trees. It is probably a seedling. The fruit is medium-sized, oval, light-pink striped and unlike any I’ve seen in Maine. I think it will be valuable as a cider or culinary cultivar. This afternoon Skylar and Cammy took off all the remaining spiral tree guards - HOORAY. These are the protective sleeves we wrap around the tree trunks to protect them from voles. We take them all off in spring. If left on they attract the dreaded apple tree borer.      

April 24, 2025

Today in the orchard

Nettles and daffodils

Spring is changing so fast it’s beginning to feel like we’re in a canoe going down class 10 rapids. (Is there such a thing?) Today marks the beginning of nettles season (Urtica dioica). Nettles are often maligned but, I think, for no good reason. You just need to know where to plant them. We keep them far away from the vegetable garden. We plant them out in the orchards and just let them do their thing. They love to have lots of room to move. We have enough to feed an army and still have a lot left to dry and make tea for the winter. They improve the soil and are delicious steamed like spinach. In fact, I think they’re better than spinach. They do “sting” so we pick them with gloves. Many of the daffodils are also now blooming.       

April 23, 2025

Today in the orchard

LWB-15, Wantage NJ (Photo by M.Clifford)

Skylar and I planted several more trees in the Finley Lane orchard. One of them was from scionwood collected by Michael Clifford in Wantage, NJ. Michael is an avid historic-apple explorer in the mid-Atlantic states. I first got to know him because his grandmother lives only a few miles away from us here in Maine. The tree we planted is currently unidentified, and Michael refers to it as LWB-15. According to him, the ancient tree produces a “small yellow conical apple with red blush, medium length stem, and russet lenticels that ripens in NJ around October 1. The taste is very aromatic, almost pear-like, and it's high in sugar. I know of a few locally grown apples that fit the profile and age of the tree. There was a slightly younger Tolman Sweet in the same orchard, but every other tree was a Campfield, so high chance it's a cider variety.”

Michael sent us scionwood again this spring for several more of his discoveries. I grafted them a couple weeks ago and will keep them here as a backup for his collection. It’s heartening to see that there are still ancient apple trees in the more developed areas of the East Coast. If you know of really old apple trees in the land of the Burbs, please don’t cut them down!

Today was the first day we were visited by the diving and swooping tree swallows who seemed delighted to be checking out the bird houses. They’ll move in soon. I think of them as the orcas of the sky. It was also the first day of Coltsfoot bloom. Spring! 

April 21, 2025

Today in the orchard

It was Patriot’s Day - a Massachusetts holiday of Revolutionary War re-enactments, parades of Minute Men, and the running of the Boston marathon. So how appropriate that Cammy and I found ourselves in Concord. We were there to visit an old, unidentified apple tree at the Concord Museum. The museum is on the site of the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The solo apple tree probably dates from about 1900, making it old enough to be of historic interest, but probably not dating from the time of Emerson and Thoreau. Several members of the museum staff and a few volunteers met with us, and we spent about an hour with the tree discussing various options for the tree. It’s definitely old and doesn’t have many more years. There are a couple of large sections of dead wood that could be pruned off, but at this point it might be best to leave them. The dead limbs may even be helping to keep the tree in balance. If you remove the weight from one side, the next thing you know, the tree could tip over in the other direction.  

Concord Museum staff and volunteers

Several weeks ago I had grafted a few replacements for the tree from scionwood collected and sent to me by local orchardist, Linda Hoffman. There are now ten young grafted trees growing in a bucket next to our masonry heater. We will set them out in the nursery in a few weeks. We will also do a DNA profile of the tree. That will require sending several fresh young leaves to Washington State University. A DNA test may be able to identify the tree by determining whether it matches one of the thousands of cultivars in the DNA reference panel. In the fall the Museum staff will send us fruit to phenotype (and taste!) 

Everyone agreed that the tree deserves to remain. It’s a cool old tree. In November the staff will fertilize the ground surface under the tree with several wheelbarrow loads of compost. Otherwise, they’ll mostly leave it alone, let enjoy its senior years and be there for the museum-goers to enjoy.

April 20, 2025

Today in the orchard

Peter del Tredici with one of the Burnham Sweet trees

We headed south to Boston with 27 two-year-old “Burnham Sweet” apple trees, individually wrapped with damp sawdust and ‘pallet-wrap’. Burnham Sweet is an heirloom, winter-keeping apple, named in honor of Oliver Burnham, an officer in the American Revolution and local hero of Cornwall, CT. The tree was introduced to us by Peter del Tredici, former director of the Arnold Arboretum and summer resident of Cornwall. Peter was able to find one or two puny scionwood sticks from the ancient tree and sent them to us in 2020. From those we were able to graft one tree. That tree produced the scionwood we used for the twenty-seven trees. We dropped the trees off with Peter who will take them back to Cornwall where they will be sold to local residents. The project will raise awareness of local historic agriculture, save another rare variety, reintroduce it to its town of origin and raise funds to support the library, all at the same time. Meanwhile the old Cornwall tree has broken apart and won’t be around much longer. Another victory for historic apple preservation!    

April 19, 2025

Today in the orchard

While others were celebrating the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride and the Minute Men down in Concord, we celebrated by going out to breakfast at the local diner with friends. Later I gave a tour of the farm to two of my Colby “apple class” students. Cammy seeded tomato and weeded the rhubarb patch. (In central Maine the old-timers used to say “Rhu-bub.) I topped off the day by planting seven apple trees up at Finley Lane, finishing as the sun went down. I wouldn’t call any of them house-hold names, but the trees and the fruit should be interesting.  

Here’s the list with a brief comment on each. Full descriptions will be up on our website before too long:

The Screen Shot (note apples!) with the Screen Shot tree behind.

Ames 550: Small, bitter, interesting flavor, developed as a rootstock 

Mettais: French bittersweet—late ripening and productive in our trials

Matthews: Malus coronaria selection with acidic green fruit

PRI Co-op 17: Bland, slightly bitter, disease and insect resistant

PRI 1850-4: Very astringent, slightly full flavored, juicy

Screen Shot: Dense, spongy, juicy, slightly bitter seedling, Starks ME

Shire’s Everlasting: True bittersweet seedling from Jared Kane in NH

April 18, 2025

Today in the orchard

The honey bees are buzzing in the orchard. They have been gathering on the stumps of several freshly cut maples and oaks sipping on the sap. Way down in southern New England the Saucer Magnolias are in glorious bloom. Spring is creeping up the coast, but we probably shouldn’t hold our breath. It’ll come. 

Dick Chase and John digging the Kavanagh tree

Skylar and I planted two apple trees and one pear this morning. Later she and Cammy took off a lot of tree guards. Dick Chase stopped by, and he and I dug a Kavanagh apple tree in memory of our mutual friend, Haas Tobey.  Haas lived in Damariscotta only a few miles from where the Kavanagh originated about 200 years ago.  (Unlike the Supreme Court Justice there is no “u” in Kavanagh.) Dick and other friends of Haas will plant the tree in Damariscotta.

Haas played an essential role in the creation of the Maine Heritage Orchard. He really threw himself into the project and contributed in many ways. He was one of those who helped design the original site plan and was there when we laid out the terraces. He helped with the plantings. He attended numerous orchard committee meetings over the years. There will be an official celebration of Haas’ life on May 3rd.  

April 17, 2025

Today in the orchard

Orcharding is a perennial activity, and apple trees are about as perennial as you can get. There’s also a perennial philosophy I’ve been reading about lately. I think it’s closely related to farming and orcharding. It has to do with noticing the inseparability of everything in life. (Sounds like orcharding to me.) In The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded  Dana Sawyer quotes the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr: “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”

.

April 16, 2025

Today in the orchard

We shipped out a truck-load of tree orders and the last of the scionwood orders. Scionwood season (alas) has come to an end. We’ll pick up where we left off on January I, 2026.  We will still dig trees for the next couple of weeks.  The peepers are now officially peeping. We saw our first Goldfinch of the spring. The daffodils are showing some yellow. Pruning is almost complete. We’ll be planting trees here on the farm later this week and next. The Red Sox (Sad Rox) are winning half their games. (Does that make this a good year?) As the Sun Ra Arkestra sings, “It’s spring, it’s spring, spring time again!”

April 15, 2025

Today in the orchard

The digging crew, April 15, 2025.

This morning we dug most of the trees in our nursery destined for other homes and orchards this spring. It rained early and then again late in the afternoon. The middle of the day, however, was cool, gray and still, the perfect conditions for tree digging. It was a stellar team effort. Gene Cartwright of Whaleback Cider, our neighbor Marc Cavatorta of Foxfire Farm, Skylar, Cammy and I dug, sorted, wrapped and bagged dozens of trees. We still have more to dig for folks who are not yet ready to plant and for ourselves. We also have some trees that are uncalled for, including some not listed on the website. If you’re looking for weird and rare trees, feel free to be in touch. We’re happy to make you a deal you can’t refuse.   

April 14, 2025

Today in the orchard

Fameuse tree, 2012

Cammy and I have nearly completed the pruning for the year.  Angus Dieghan joined us to help with the high climbers. It’s always a pleasure to have him spend a day with us. One of the trees Angus worked on was our ancient Fameuse tree. Cammy’s comment was, “I care less about the apples than the tree itself. I love that tree.” It is a really cool tree. The trunk is basically a shell. One branch pushed itself into the ground thirty or forty years ago and holds up what’s left of the rest of the tree. I imagine it was planted about 100 years ago. In 2012 when we took over Finley Lane there were six trees left of the original fifty or so. Now there are four. The Fameuse put on a burst of growth when we pruned it in 2012. That may have been it’s last big gasp. This past year the longest new growth was only a couple inches. It may be time to bid it farewell. 

April 11, 2025

Today in the orchard

John & Seth Yentes, Greenlawn Cemetery, Salem MA, March 4, 2025.

Another day of snow and rain - in fact it was the third day it had snowed this past week. I spent the day in the shop grafting crabapples with Alyssa Gavlik. I had collected the scionwood from the Greenlawn Cemetery in Salem MA, an arboretum cemetery with dozens of different tree species including an assortment of Malus (crabapples) that were planted in the early twentieth century. In early March Fedco grower Seth Yentes and I had stopped at the cemetary en route to the annual ‘Stump Sprouts’ apple growers’ conference. Unfortunately none of the crabapples are identified since whatever records there were of the plantings have been lost. In the coming months the cemetery folks will have them all DNA profiled in hopes of identifying as many as possible. 

We grafted three trees of each specimen. In May I’ll plant out the small trees in our nursery where they will live for the next 2 years. It will be interesting to watch the young trees as they grow to see their form and foliage. I suspect that because they are all ornamental crabs, we’ll find some interesting things. Crab genetics tend to be much more varied than those of the common domestic grocery-store apples. I know at least one will be red-leafed and red-flowered since the wood was red inside.  For a new grafter like Alyssa, grafting trees hour after hour is the perfect way to build grafting skills.

April 10, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today central Maine attempted to dry out a bit.  Nearly all the snow is gone (again!) and won’t be back for at least another day or two. Today’s task was cleaning out a winter’s worth of straw bedding from the duck house, located in the BRC.  (As readers of this orchard report will recall, there have been many suggestions for what “BRC” stands for. Our friend Bill who lives in the Boston area and regularly comes up to escape the city refers to it as “Bill’s Recovery Center.”)  The ducks reside there, although this time of year they wander far and wide across the farm taking dips in all our ponds. While they were off on an extended swim, Cammy cleaned the duck house. I provided tractor support, moving the bedding into the compost heaps. Once it breaks down it goes back into the gardens and round and round. (Will the circle be unbroken?)

Pruning Curt and Deena’s tree

Late in the day I traveled south to prune an ancient apple tree owned by Deena and Curt Ball. Although the tree has been DNA profiled, it remains unnamed, suggesting it could be a local historic variety that we have not been able to identify. Curt and Alyssa Gavlik provided back-up support while I did the climbing and cutting. The old tree should still have at least a few more seasons of apples yet to come.

Afterwards, we visited an old orchard site by a salt marsh at the suggestion of Curt and Deena where we found a very large and equally ancient apple tree that someone had admirably excavated from the bittersweet and multiflora rose. There were multiple small seedling apples growing only a few feet from the high tide line. Those amazing apple trees. 

On the way home I stopped at the A1 diner in Gardiner and, to my surprise, there was a truck parked in front of mine also adorned with two apple ladders. It was Laura Sieger en route home from a pruning job.  Tis the season.   

April 9, 2025

Today in the orchard

Yesterday’s sloppy mix of snow and rain turned to all snow after dark, and by this morning we had four inches of fluffy snow on everything down to the smallest twig on the apple trees. It was a perfect “winter” wonderland. When the sun broke through about 8:00, it was dazzling. Skylar came over for the day. We began to create a “passport” file of all the apples and pears in the Maine Heritage Orchard. Going forward, each accession will have its own entry including its location in the orchard, a brief history of its rediscovery, DNA results, fruit description and more. After noon we worked on bench grafting apples in the shop. Skylar did only minimal damage to one finger. Meanwhile the snow was rapidly being absorbed into the earth, and by evening most of the ground was once again bare. 

April 7, 2025

Today in the orchard

One of the earliest to flower in our orchard is the Japanese Pussy Willow, Salix chaenomeloides. 

Our former farm-mate Emily Skrobis came over yesterday to cut willow (Salix spp.) She was here all day harvesting the long, colorful, one-year-old shoots she will use in her exquisite basket-making, a tradition that goes back many thousands of years. We have a wide assortment of willows growing throughout the farm—most are the native Salix discolor and other local species. Some we introduced. Years ago, Emily planted most of the strikingly brilliant-hued willows she uses in her weaving. 

When willows appear spontaneously in the orchard, we allow them to do their thing. They tend to remain as shrubs or small trees when left on their own. They flower early in spring and are a good source of food for the pollinators. The soft furry ‘pussy willows’ are the first stage of the flowers before they bloom. We consider the willows to be welcome members of the Super Chilly orchard cooperative community!

April 6, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today was the Seed Swap & Scion Exchange at MOFGA in Unity.  It’s an annual event that dates back over 40 years and typically draws a mob of wildly enthusiastic plant geeks from throughout Maine and beyond.

Seed Swap & Scion Exchange, 2025

The idea is simple: to share scions and seeds. You bring what you have, and you take whatever you like. Admission is free, and there’s no obligation to bring anything with you. There are grafting supplies, rootstock and miscellaneous odds and ends for sale (donuts this year), but the Scion Exchange has mostly remained true to its original intent: the free and generous sharing of information and plant material. 

The Scion Exchange which is usually held the last Sunday in March was delayed due to weather by a week. Even with the postponement, the long tables were piled with scions of hundreds of varieties of apples, pears and other fruits. There were educational displays and workshops. Skilled grafters were custom grafting trees right on the spot. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon early spring.

April 5, 2025

Today in the orchard

The snowdrops answer the question

Although most of the plant world on the farm is still looking dormant, the daffodils and other spring bulbs are beginning to show green throughout the orchard. They will be bursting out of the soil any day now. We have planted them around nearly every tree. Something about the bulbs appears to deters voles. (Apple trees don’t like voles, but voles love apple roots!) The Snowdrops (Galanthus) are now in full bloom. The Galanthus genus includes about two dozen species. As far as I can tell, most are fairly obscure. The one we grow is probably a selection of G. nivalis. It is low-statured and spreads slowly by the production of new bulbs. Despite that, every year we see new patches far from the old ones, suggesting that they may also spread by seed. Either that or the old memory’s not quite what it used to be… “Where did I plant that Galanthus nivalis, anyway?”