Today in the orchard
Last night we were blessed with about an inch and a half of rain. At times it was coming down quite powerfully, especially early in the evening. Today the much-needed rain continued off and on. We spent most of the day indoors attempting to solve apple-identification mysteries. Skylar took on the apple we’ve been calling Peach of Montreal (aka Montreal Peach). It was given to me as scionwood about fifteen years ago by Josh Karp of Cate Hill Orchard in Greensboro, VT having been identified for Josh by old-timers in the area. A recent DNA profile threw that ID into question, suggesting it was Iowa Beauty, not Peach of Montreal. After several hours of slicing up and examining fruit and reading Bussey’s History of North American Apples, we are certain that we do have the correct POM after all.
There are any number of things that could have led to what is an apparent mix-up somewhere along the way. I will now resubmit leaves that might have been mixed up in the DNA testing. I will also look at the apple that became the original DNA submission for the reference panel to which our leaves were eventually compared. That tree is in Iowa, and hopefully I can get apples from it this fall.
The solving of apple ID mysteries is incredibly time-consuming and, some might say, tedious, but for the right geek it is fun and rewarding when you sort out something like we were able to do today. Meanwhile, the rain came to an end, and the world began to dry out. Tomorrow we’ll be back outside in the orchards.