Welcome
Welcome to Out On A Limb Apples. We are a small, off-grid homestead farm and experimental orchard in central Maine. We grow several hundred apple, pear and plum cultivars, most of which are unusual, historic or rare. Many are un-named seedlings that we are trialing or species apple selections from around the world. We collaborate with the USDA, the Maine Heritage Orchard, Fedco Trees, and with growers, collectors and institutions in the US and around the globe. Our goals are to:
track down, identify and preserve rare apples, pears and plums,
learn how to use them and grow them, and
make fruit, trees, scionwood and information available to the public.
Check out our Today in the orchard blog
Buy Our apples and trees
The fruit trees that we grow aren’t the ones you’ll find at super markets or most farm stands. We specialize in the old, the rare and the unusual. We want you to try them. Whether you’re a restaurant, bakery, cider maker or farm stand, we can supply you with organically grown fruit that will shake up your customers’ expectations. If you want to put a bit of the novel in your orchard, we have trees and scionwood for sale. If you’re looking to preserve a favorite tree from your childhood home, we offer custom grafting as well. Click the pictures below for more information.
Talks, Tastings & apple id’s
Looking to learn more about historic apples? John gives talks all over the country to groups small and large about fruit exploring, the history of apples, and even specialty topics such as the connection between apples and railroads. He is probably best known for his huge apple displays and riotous apple tastings at the Common Ground Fair every year. But displays and tastings are not just limited to the Fair. We can customize them for your event with apples local to your area. Don’t live near an apple festival? We can put together a tasting box for your friends and family to try some of our most unusual apples. And if you’re wondering if the ancient apple tree in your backyard is the long lost Naked Limbed Greening, John and his band of apple geeks might be able to help you out. For more information on all these opportunities, click the pictures below.
APPLES & THEIR USES
To learn more about various apple cultivars and how to use them, click the pictures below for a bushel of information. If you are fortunate enough to have a bushel of apples at the end of October, there are also some tips on how to store them. From 2009-2024 we operated a 170 shareholder rare apple CSA every fall. During that time we published a biweekly newsletter with information about the history and culinary values of the varieties we included in the shares. The newsletters make for pretty good reading about all things apple if you ever want a deeper dive. And if you’re still looking for the CSA, never fear. Lizzie and Khris Hogg, who worked with us for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, are carrying the proverbial CSA baton forward. You can reach them at csa.outonalimb@gmail.com.
TIPS FOR GROWING AND RESTORING TREES
Of course we want you to try our apples, but we’re most excited to see our trees repopulating the yards, orchards, parks and conservation land of New England and beyond. We want to help return these rare and historic trees to the communities where they originated and to assist people in saving the ancient ones from death and obscurity. Click the pictures below for tips that might help you with your tree projects.
CONNECT WITH US
We always enjoy making connections with people over a good apple. We’d love to see you at one of the many apple events that we attend. If you can’t make to a talk or tasting, you can read more about apples in John’s Book, Apples and the Art of Detection, or in the many apple articles and talks that we have links to. We would like to hear from you, but please beware that our first priority is to care for our orchards and gardens. We’re unable to give tours, and we do not have a farm stand or a U-pick orchard.
