October 11, 2026

Last day in Vermont. In the early morning our hosts, Marina Garland and Hank Ainley, gave me a personal tour of their farm. The centerpiece is a massive old wooden barn, roughly 80 feet by 40 feet and multiple stories high. At one time you could find these elegant structures throughout all of rural New England. They are the cathedrals of a long-ago thriving farm culture. Their loss has been one of the cultural tragedies of the twentieth century. How could we allow these incredible buildings to crumble, collapse and die?

Forty-one year old Fedco Tree “Minnesota 1734,” October 11, 2026

One of the highlights of my tour was seeing four apple trees that Hank’s mom, Julie, purchased from the second Fedco Trees catalog back in 1985 when the “catalog” was three sheets of 8 1/2” x 14” paper stapled in the upper left-hand corner. The trees looked great. I felt like I was seeing my children. I’m sure I had handled each of the se trees forty-one years ago when they were just a stick! One apple is an orange and reddish russet that they couldn’t identify. I took some fruit and when Skylar saw it, she ID’ed it instantly as MN 1734. I looked at the old order sheet when I got back to the farm and, yes, Fedco had sold “MINNESOTA” in ’85. (No “1734” in the name, but it’s definitely the same apple.) The brief Fedco description includes a fun typo: “fichly flavored.”  

Later in the morning I returned to Scott Farm for their annual apple festival. It was a large and enthusiastic crowd. Todd Little-Siebold and I gave two talks. We picked some apples. because we couldn’t resist, and then we headed back to Maine in the rain.