Today in the orchard
I headed to Maine’s northern Aroostook County to go fruit exploring with Laura Sieger and Sean Turley. Although it’s tough to leave the farm during September, I was pretty sure it would be worth the effort. The historic apples in “The County” are different from those down here in central Maine. Many are Duchess-related. The rugged, hardy Duchess (of Oldenburg) was planted throughout the area, and the descendants of those early plantings can still be found as selected cultivars and as massive seedling populations. It is a magical place for fruit-exploring.
We were immediately rewarded late this afternoon with two great visits. First we went east of Presque Isle to the farm of Wayne and Pam Sweetser. Their old door-yard tree may be the real Hayford Sweet. It is a true low-acid “sweet.” We then went to see an ancient grafted tree a few miles west of Presque Isle on the Parsons Road that must have had ten bushels on the ground. Fortunately many were still in decent enough shape for us to taste. That tree is an old variety—yet to be identified—that deserves to be added to the Maine Heritage Orchard. We took fruit to phenotype and leaves for a DNA profile.
It was a productive and fun afternoon. Tomorrow we will visit the seedling forests. Thanks to the bears, there are tens of thousands of seedlings spread over practically every available hillside field no longer in agricultural use.