TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was a sparkling cold winter day. I made a trip up to a small farm orchard in Orland not far from the mouth of the Penobscot River. It’s a orchard of about thirty trees, four of which are quite old. The younger trees were grafted in the 1950’s and 60’s by a fellow named Linwood Robshaw.

Todd and I sat with Linwood’s son, Pete, chatted and compared maps. Pete had an old family map, and I had one I made in 2016. The two maps corresponded pretty well. Between us we hope to ID all the trees. We will DNA profile several mysteries this coming spring.

Robshaw orchard tree with 3 grafts: near stem is a crab—probably Hyslop; middle stem is Northern Spy; right-hand stem is McIntosh. (photo by jpb, March 2014)

Last night was —20 F at the farm, a good night for the dogs to be indoors. The orchard trees however are happy to be outdoors 24-7-365. They are now fully dormant (or as dormant as they’ll ever be) and —20 shouldn’t do any damage. As Robert Frost famously wrote, “Keep cold, young orchard. Goodbye and keep cold. Dread fifty above more than fifty below.” It promises to be another cold one on the farm tonight.