Never reached 32F today, and what snow we still have didn’t budge. Cammy continued pruning trees, and I cut scionwood. Early in the day I went to Belfast to run errands and to see if I could find Gloria Seigars. Gloria lived up in Aroostook County for many years with her husband, Dick. I met her through Steve and Barb Miller. She was a wildly enthusiastic fruit explorer. She and I went on several memorable exploration trips together in northern Maine and Quebec in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s, often with Steve and Barb and Garfield King, a retired school superintendent. It was on those trips that I first visited the Charette and Pomme d'Or trees.

Gloria and Garfield were both incredibly generous with their time, their enthusiasm and their knowledge. They were both important mentors to me. They were also models in their love of life. Gloria was always self deprecating. She never thought she had much to offer, and yet the time I spent with her was life-changing.

Gloria Seigars, fruit explorer and apple mentor

Garfield died some years ago, and I hadn’t seen Gloria since I visited her five or six years ago in Belfast where she now spends her winters. So today I decided to see if I could find her. And I did. She answered the door, and we sat together and talked for a half an hour. She looked great. She’s 98, turning 99 on July 26. She told me about one of her seedling discoveries that finally fruited last fall and was well worth the wait: it’s a small red dessert fruit with excellent flavor. I’ll graft it up at Finley. Apples do keep the doctor away!