Todd, Skylar and Claus collecting scionwood from the possible "Martha Stripe" in Orland

By mid-afternoon the temperatures were pushing 40F and snow was melting. Spring is in the air. Only three more weeks. I spent today on the road collecting scionwood from old trees primarily in coastal Hancock County. I was joined by Todd, Skylar and, a retired physician named Claus Hamann who lives in Orland and has seriously bit the apple exploration bug.

We made a gigantic loop around Ellsworth, with an assortment of stops in Brooksville, Orland, Bucksport and Lamoine. In each location we went to specific old trees that we’ve been visiting and studying in recent years, some for a decade or longer. Sometimes we had long chats with the owners, while in other cases, no one was home but we had permission to take scionwood.

Although we suspect we know the identity of some of trees, most remain unidentified, known only by their provisional names and, in some cases, a DNA profile number. That, however, is changing this year. Skylar and Todd have developed a new system of labeling every tree we work with, beginning with the scionwood. Now each selection gets its own handy code that will stick with it for the next hundred years or so. In the past I’ve always preferred the “scribble-a-few-words-on-the-tape” method, but this new code will—we hope—reduce the number of mix-ups that have inevitably happened over the years. We now have hundreds of trees saved in the Maine Heritage Orchard, various nurseries and our auxiliary collections in Palermo, Ellsworth and elsewhere. Minimizing errors is a laudable goal!

As I headed back to the farm, I made stops in Belfast to collect scions from an old tree that might be a second Drap d'or de Bretagne and at one of my all-time favorite seedlings - the rather nasty “Bitter Pew.” It was getting dark as I pulled into the driveway and parked next to the shop. It was still a few degrees above freezing.