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!
