October 27-28, 2025

Today in the orchard

Some much-needed rain these two days. Time to organize the piles of apples I need to examine in the coming weeks. They come in many categories - apples collected from newly-discovered ancient trees, apples sent from folks seeking an identification, recent breeding projects needing trial, and even apples from our own rare cultivars fruiting for the first time. Bags and boxes by the gazillion. How can we get to them all? Fortunately most are in the cooler which is pretty good at extending the life of the fruit.  

In between the raindrops I was able to clear out around the last trees to make them easier to pick in the next few days. By week’s end they should all be harvested. Baseball season will soon be over too. Out in LA the Dodgers and the Blue Jays are duking it out for the World Series. There’s a lot of similarities between those whose lives are spent in the ballpark and those in the orchard. The consummate orchardist has to be able to climb and pick and spray and prune and graft and dig and a whole lot more.  The best baseball players have to be able to do almost as many things as well (though not quite), like hit and throw and catch and run and slide.  We’re all multitasking! 

October 26, 2025

Today in the orchard

We bottled last year’s cider and pressed about 25 bushels of this year’s best. It was a busy day. The bottle-cleaning crew cleaned while the bottling crew bottled, while the grinding crew ground and the pressing crew pressed. By mid-afternoon we had emptied the old oak barrel and filled it up again. All the while the picking crew continued to pick the last of this year’s crop. It was a well-oiled (well-cidered?) machine.

In the past we’ve bottled last year’s cider a few weeks before pressing, but this was a busy fall, and we didn’t get to it. So we compressed the ritual into one long day. And it worked. We gave up washing our oak barrels years ago so we were able to bottle last year’s cider and then refill the barrel with new juice, right on top of the lees. Any concern about exposing the inside of the barrel to oxygen is probably not an issue since the exposure is less than a few hours. And all that sludge at the bottom of the barrel (the lees) is instantly inoculating the fresh juice with everything it needs to start the fermentation.

What apples did we use? Well, Shavel Sharp of course. And Fuel Service, the bittersweet roadside seedling Cammy spotted on a trip to Castine several years ago. And a few bushels of Grimes Golden just because we had them. And 447 (Frostbite), Tolman Sweet and smaller amounts of about two dozen others, including all our French bittersweets, a few bittersharps and an assortment of seedlings. This may be the universe’s ultimate blend (or not). In any event, stay-tuned. We’ll bottle this batch in October ’26 and begin drinking it a year later. If we can wait that long!    

October 25, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today we finally picked the Black Oxfords. We harvested close to thirty bushels from our three Black Oxford trees. We also picked the rest of other late varieties including Scout, one of our favorite seedlings "born" here on the farm. It’s time to get those late-season apples off the trees before the really cold nights freeze and destroy them. To get all the apples off the trees before dark we had to call in reinforcements - our neighbors Marc and Ava and our good friend Brett Mirliani who made his long, annual trek up from MA for this late season, pomological ritual. Thank you Brett!  

October 24, 2025

Today in the orchard

I traveled to southern Maine to harvest one of my favorite apples directly from the original “source” tree. The apple was introduced to me a dozen years ago by orthopedic surgeon Steve Barr. (Steve is actually a farmer who does knees and hips as a sideline. His advice to me—and presumably to you too—is “keep moving.”) 

Steve and his family produced organic cider for several years but were told to cease and desist when the authorities discovered that the cider was entirely unprocessed and un-irradiated. Subsequently, as a school science project his daughter did a comparison of their cider with the store-bought, irradiated brand. The result? Their cider was still looking good after weeks in the petri-dish. Meanwhile, the store-bought, irradiated cider had developed mold.  Which would you want to drink?

Year ago Steve told me about the most bitter apple he had ever tasted. Of course I was curious. (More accurately, excited.) Less than an hour later I ate my first apple and dubbed it “Shavel Sharp.” It’s either a seedling or rogue rootstock. The flavor is nasty and bitter. Just my kind of apple. We’ve grafted multiple trees in our orchard, and they are all now fruiting. But when the original tree bears fruit, I still love to make the pilgrimage to Cumberland County to collect the fruit. Shavel Sharp!

October 23, 2025

Today in the orchard

You know that apple picking season is winding down when you’re out there picking the Black Oxfords. I did a test run picking two bushels of Black Oxfords up in the Finley Lane Orchard. They are beginning to drop. The stems are detaching easily. It’s time to pick them all. We’ll do that this weekend. 

We sell or trade most of the Black Oxfords, but we always keep a few bushels for ourselves. We store them in the cooler as the root cellar cools down. In a few weeks we’ll shut off the cooler and move all the remaining apples into the root cellar where they’ll reside for the winter. After a couple of months in storage— about mid-January when they’re reaching their prime — we’ll begin to pull out the Black Oxfords and use them primarily in cooking. 

Yes, apple picking season is winding down, and Black Oxford season is winding up. 

October 22, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today was an all-day, apple exploring adventure that focused on Maine’s Franklin County. Along the way we made stops at Colby College (the ancient tree by the Rugby Field), Oakland (the two amazing huge Fallawater trees) and Belgrade (the Spice Sweet tree that got hit by a tractor-trailer truck a decade ago and is now on its last “legs.”) Then we detoured into Somerset County to collect a bag of fruit off the Norridgewock Sweet, my provisional name for a true sweet (low-acid) apple that begs to be identified. (It might be one of the Northern Sweets.)

It was late morning when we finally headed west on Route 2 into Franklin County. The first stop was the incredible Tolman Sweet tree in New Sharon. (You can see a photo of the tree in the Art of Detection, p. 353.) Hellmut Bitterauf met us at the tree; then we checked out two more of Hellmut and Karen’s oldest trees, both of which have fruit this year. I will attempt to ID them in the next few weeks.

We continued on Rte 2 through Farmington and headed due north up Rte 4 into the heart of Franklin County where we met David King in the parking lot of the Sandy River Shop ’n Save in Phillips. David guided us to three local sites. The first two were interesting, but the third was a winner: the ancient remnants of what was once a huge tree, now nearly dead but still with one small vibrant living branch. There was no fruit; however, there were enough leaves for a DNA profile. Score.  

Then it was up Tory Hill to visit the four, thought-to-be-Deane trees. Michael Rothschild, Wendy and Chee gave us a long tour of their farm. We took leaves from one of their Deane trees to be submitted for DNA analysis. An earlier test with leaves from the Maine Heritage Orchard “Deane” tree matched the Wisconsin apple “Milwaukee.” I’ve been wanting to get leaves directly from the Phillips trees, and this was my opportunity.

The day ended at the Farmington Grange where I handed out Franklin County Wanted Posters, sold books and apples and gave a presentation on the apples of Franklin County. During the Q and A I learned that there’s a very good chance that the long-lost Sarah apple has been found. This may have been the most exciting news of the day. I’ll obtain scionwood this winter and graft it in the spring. I’ll also get leaves for a DNA test. Long after dark we were back on the road for the  foggy drive back to Palermo. What a day.    

October 20-21, 2025

Today in the orchard

Scott Skogerboe came to visit us for two days. Scott has worked in the nursery trade for several decades out in Fort Collins, Colorado. He’s an apple geek as well as a plant explorer and plant historian. One of his special interests (among dozens) is Niels Hansen, the plant explorer who found and introduced Dolgo Crab and the red-fleshed apple, Niedzwetzkyana. Hansen also bred and introduced many of the hybrid plums we grow in our orchards as well as dozens of other plants. Fittingly, Scott brought us a small grafted tree of a Dolgo seedling he’s selected for us to trial up at Finley Lane.   

For years a mutual friend kept trying to get us together. Then we finally met in Boulder at an apple conference a couple of years ago. He was in New England for a wedding this past week and detoured up to see us. Although we did tour pretty much every tree and garden on the farm, we spent many hours at the kitchen table just talking plants as a much-needed gentle rain blessed the landscape. It was a wonderful visit. When he left, we loaded him down with a major stash of apples to take back to Fort Collins. 

October 19, 2025

Today in the orchard

About 400 apple enthusiasts gathered for The Great Maine Apple Day at MOFGA in Unity. It’s an annual mid-October Sunday afternoon event that features elaborate displays of apple varieties grown in Maine, dozens of different apples for tasting and evaluating, workshops, pie-making, apples for sale and everything apple you could ever imagine. 

I spent most of the afternoon identifying apples brought by attendees from across the state. Although now and then I can pull out a name like a rabbit out of a hat, I confess that often I am “stumped.” And it’s the stumped ones that really pique my curiosity. “Where is this tree?… What can you tell me about the tree? … Do you have a photo of this tree? .. This could be something really interesting!"

October 18 2025

Today in the orchard

Skylar and I were back in the orchards today picking several more varieties. These included Westfield-Seek-No-Further (aka Westy), South Dakota Ben, Belle de Boskoop, Blake, C'Huero Ru Bienn, Melody Maker, Shavel Sharp, Hatchet Mountain, Grandfather, and Redfield. 

Westfield is a famous, historic dessert fruit, originating in Westfield, MA about the time of the Revolution. South Dakota Ben is also a dessert selection, although not of the same quality as WSNF. Boskoop and Blake are large cooking apples; Boskoop is one of the most famous in the world, while Blake is likely the lesser known Blake of Westbrook, ME. C'Huero Ru Bienn is a bittersweet from Brittany. There are a bunch of “C’Huero” apples from Brittany. Apparently “huero” means bitter. So that would make it a “good, red bitter” apple. We have one large branch but should have an entire tree. I’ll take care of that this coming spring. Melody Maker is a medium-large, beautiful, orange-blushed russet, one of our favorite seedling selections.  Shavel Sharp is nasty, sharp and bitter seedling. Yum. Grandfather is an old seedling from a few miles down the road from the farm. Hatchet Mountain is a small (1”), ribbed, red, roadside seedling with true-red flowers and fruit that looks like mini-Calville Blanc. Last but not least - Redfield is one of my favorite apples: medium-large, red-fleshed, prolific, rugged, hardy, mostly annual-bearing and great in a pie or sauce. Ah, Redfield!  

October 15-17, 2025

Today in the orchard

I took off three days from the orchard to work on construction projects around the farm. Living on the farm requires one to be a Jack of all trades, even if it means the ladder remains in the shed now and then. Meanwhile the apples do continue to ripen and some are dropping. We’re moving towards the final period of picking. By the end of the month, all the apples will be off the trees. The storage apples—the keepers—will go to the cooler and then, as soon as the root cellar gets cold enough, we’ll move them to the root cellar. Ideally we’d leave them to ripen on the trees, but we just can’t do it. They would freeze and then rot.  So, instead we wait as long as we dare, and then we pick them all and let them finish up ripening inside over the course of the next few months.

October 14, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today I did a deep dive into another apple mystery we’ve been attempting to solve for the past decade - finding the true Brigg’s Auburn. 'Tis the season for attempting to sort out ID errors and mysteries. What we originally thought was “Briggs” turned out to be Northwestern Greening. But in his 2023 apple exploration adventures, Sean Turley found an old tree in Poland, ME with fruit that resembled Briggs. We DNA profiled it, and the results did not match anything in the reference panel. Hooray - maybe it’s Briggs. Sean returned this fall and obtained eight apples that he gave to me.  This would be a major discovery if it is turns out to be Brigg’s Auburn.

I spent several hours examining the fruit and all my historical records. Everything matched. The location is right: Poland is only five miles from Minot where the apple was said to have originated. The tree is old, which it would have to be. And the relatively detailed historic description in Bradford’s 1911 Apple Varieties in Maine matches the Poland fruit. Next step is to meet with our Historic Fruit Tree Working Group and convince them. I think we may have found the true Brigg’s Auburn.

October 13, 2025

Today in the orchard

Todd Little-Siebold and I headed “downeast” to the town of Cherryfield in search of the true Cherryfield (aka Collins) apple. We’ve been scheming about such a trip for a couple of years. The DNA profile of the apple tree we thought was Cherryfield matched an old Illinois apple called Salome. We’ve now found this same Salome in multiple Maine locations. The phenotype also appears to be Salome. So most likely we had Cherryfield wrong. Once we got over the disappointment, we decided to go back to square one, and that meant a trip back to Cherryfield to find Larry Brown, the fellow who sent me two apples from a tree he had grafted from a far-older tree—the apple I thought was Cherryfield.  

Even before the DNA profile, I had some lingering doubts about our “Cherryfield.” I had photographed the two apples Larry Brown sent to me nearly twenty years ago. They did not match the apples from our grafts—the apples we eventually DNA profiled. Something must have been mixed up somewhere along the way. What we had was, apparently, not what Larry had found and sent us. (As Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler famously uttered long ago, “mistakes were made…”) This prompted today’s return trip to Cherryfield in search of the source tree of those two original apples. 

We found Larry who took us to the tree from which those first two apples came. It was not in good shape, but it did have a few reasonably decent-looking fruit. We took fruit and leaves. The fruit is definitely not Salome. That’s a good thing. We’ll do a complete detailed description and see if it matches any other apples we know. I’ll also compare the fruit to the photo I still have of Larry’s fruit. We’ll submit leaves for a DNA profile. Then we’ll keep our fingers crossed (an old scientist’s trick).   

October 12, 2025

Today in the orchard

Cammy, Skylar and I spent much of the day dismantling the gardens and building a new compost pile. Sometimes it seems as though all we do is build compost piles and then dismantle them. That’s actually a good thing as we spend very little money on fertilizer. The vast majority of it—the fertilizer—gets made right here. That’s one of things I admire most about biodynamics. While not a strict practitioner myself, I do aspire to many of their tenants, one being the closed loop on the farm, that is, using and producing everything right on site. Beginning (and ending) with compost. (By the way, who actually “makes” the compost really? is it the worms? The microbes? The rain? The wind? The sun? All of the above?) We also picked more apples today, including Blue Pearmain and Starkey. The Blue Pearmains are insanely beautiful this year, with their purple skin and their electric orange cavity.

October 11, 2025

Today in the orchard

I took our large cider press down to Portland’s Mt. Joy Orchard for their annual community cider-pressing event. It’s a family event, and all the cider is given away to whoever shows up with a jug or a bottle or a cup. There’s no visible organization, and yet everything gets done with perfection. Apples get ground up, buckets are filled with pomace, cider gets pressed, funnels appear, and vessels of various sizes and shapes get filled. No one was counting, as far as I know, but I’d say there were a hundred attendees at one point or another and many gallons were distributed or consumed on the spot. 

October 9, 2025

Today in the orchard

This time of year my eyes are on full-time, road-side, apple-alert. This is tricky stuff when you’re at the wheel. You do have to have your attention on the road in front of you (and behind) but somehow devote just enough attention (2%?) to seeing the fruit on that tree you never noticed before. It helps to have a full-time, highly-trained driver who isn’t into apples, (or, even better, one who is but is willing to share the driving.) 

Although my focus has been largely on the historic Maine apples for the past several decades, I do love to find seedling trees. Today I made a detour to one of my new favorite seedlings—this one in South China (Maine not China). It’s a true sweet (low acid). The fruit is large, mostly yellow and ripening now. Although many have been dropping over the past month (I’ve been watching), the majority are still on the tree. They are gorgeous. So I stopped by today and picked a shopping bag-full. I don’t know who owns the tree. No one was home at the closest house. I’ll go back on a weekend soon, knock on the door and pick the rest. 

While I’m on the subject of seedlings: The 6th annual Seedling Exhibition in Williamsburg, MA is happening on Halloween. If you’re interested in submitting fruit and/or attending, go to <gnarlypippins.com>

and check out the details. See you there!

October 8, 2025

Today in the orchard

People and dogs have been living together for the past thirty thousand years—or maybe forty. By the time the first farms appeared ten thousand years ago, dogs were a well-established part of the team. We couldn’t live and farm the way we do without our collies. They live outside 24-7-365 with the occasional night inside for good behavior or when the weather is particularly gross. They bark all night sometimes. (That’s actually a good thing.) They keep the deer and the bear out of the orchards. They occasionally get too close to porcupines. (Ugh) We’ve had seven collies on the farm over the past forty years. Some have “belonged” to us and others to others living on the farm. A number of friends have purchased collies after spending time with ours. They are truly fantastic dogs.

Now we have sad news on the farm. Our wonderful old collie, Radar, died earlier this week. She lived her entire life on the farm. Every day of it. She dutifully protected the gardens and apple trees, and she welcomed hundreds—or maybe even thousands—of friends and visitors with love and affection. She loved to wiggle her way between your legs and snuggled with everyone. If there ever was a loyal creature, the epitome of love, it was her.

We buried Radar under an apple tree in the orchard. It’s a seedling tree with red-fleshed apples that fruited for the first time earlier this month. When we planted it in the orchard years ago, Cammy named the tree Radar Love. Goodbye old dog. We miss you.  

October 7, 2025

Today in the orchard

I spent a few hours touring around Palermo saying hello to some of my favorite old apple trees. There are many. Some of them I’ve grafted into our orchards, some I stop by and visit every year, and others I rarely get to see. One in particular that I wanted to check out is a russet that’s growing in the middle of a hay field on the road up to Freedom. The tree is exceedingly old, and I’ve never attempted to do an ID or take leaves for a DNA profile. There were two apples left, and I snagged them both (with permission). I’ll “phenotype” them soon. Then I’ll send in leaves for a DNA profile. At first glance I’m not sure if it’s a GR-1, GR-2 or another of the Golden Russet-types that were grown in central Maine long ago. 

In the evening I gave an apple talk at the Palermo Historical Society. I brought in a couple dozen apples, all from around town, and used them as props while telling stories about the old-timers who were my guides as I soared off into the incredible universe of apples. I even did a bit of reading from my first book about the apples of Palermo. It was a fun evening.      

October 6, 2025

Today in the orchard

After a brief pause the apples are now insisting to be picked. The rush is on. We get occasional mini-respites during apple season, giving us enough time to blink a few times, and then in comes the next frenzy. Today we picked the bulk of the Grimes Golden, Pomme Grise, Sweet Sixteen, Norton Greening and lesser amounts of several others. 

“Grimes” is probably one of the most important of all apple parents. Its child is the internationally famous Golden Delicious (GD), itself one of the most sought after and used apple-parents in the world. (Gala is just one of the numerous children of Golden Delicious.) 

Grimes is southern apple (West Virginia) that was adaptable enough to northern areas to be grown a century ago in orchards here in central Maine. Our trees are grafted from scionwood I cut from an old tree just up the road. Grimes fruit is a bit more blocky and less conic than GD. It has the same yellow skin as GD, although the surface has an chalky-opaque quality to it, almost as though it was russet (which it is not). It is excellent for both fresh eating and cooking. It has one characteristic that is considered a flaw in the commercial orchard world. Around the beginning of October it begins to drop fruit daily. It doesn’t drop all at once (which would be a signal to hustle out there and pick it), and it doesn’t hang on for you to harvest at your convenience. It just starts dropping one or two fruits at a time like water dripping from a slowly leaking faucet. Although we don’t mind using drops, in an age when selling drops is forbidden, this can be a real problem. So we let them drop for a few days, collect them off the ground for us, hope the rest are ripe enough, and then pick them all… today.  

October 5, 2025

Today in the orchard

In August John’s Ice Cream in Liberty purchased a few flats of two of our favorite plums: Purple Heart and Black Ice. (see Orchard Reports from August 23 and August 25, 2025) Both are juicy, delicious and deep-red-fleshed. Louis Pontillo, who took over the business from John Ascrizzi, just released a non-dairy Plum Sorbet from the plums. Today we got to try it. Our conclusion: excellent!  Better hustle down to John’s and get a quart for yourself before it’s all gone.  

October 4, 2025

Today in the orchard

This morning I gave a talk at the Windsor apple festival, a few miles from here, to a small but enthusiastic group of apple lovers. I went from there to visit an ancient Tolman Sweet tree that is growing nearby. It is still in excellent shape with long, robust, horizontal lower branches. Although it hasn’t been pruned in many years, it is un-shaded, growing out in the open and is mostly still intact. Meanwhile, Cammy picked the Tolman Sweet at home, along with the Fuel Service and some of the Grimes Golden. We’ll pick the rest of the Grimes ASAP.

In the afternoon we both judged apple pies at Absolem Cider in Winthrop. They were having their own apple pie contest and apple festival. The place was mobbed. It was fun to see the pies and the people. Sadly, it was clear that the chefs don’t have access to real pie apples. (We both agreed that the tastiest pie was the one made from foraged apples.) I look forward to seeing pie apples back in the commercial orchards and the backyards of every Maine home. Those modern apples are not fit for pies!

There are a few old apple trees at Absolem. One that’s growing not far from the tasting room is a Roxbury Russet. Although ubiquitous in the Maine landscape for two hundred years, nearly all of the “Rox” are gone. It’s a great apple, and it’s fun to connect with an old tree.