Today in the Orchard

The true Bedan from Bulmer’s Historic Orchard, UK

It barely hit +8F today at the farm so it seemed like an invitation to stay indoors and work on apple confusions. I focused on Bedan, one of the most important cider-apple ancestors. The origins of Bedan are unknown although we do know it’s French, exceedingly old, and was first mentioned in the 14th century. It is in the parentage of many of the French cider cultivars of more recent times. One of its most well-known progeny is Bedan des Parts which originated in about 1875 and is reputed to be a cross between Bedan and Clos des Parts, its name being a contraction of the two supposed parents. Unfortunately, many times when a cultivar name is re-used in one of its children, confusion ensues. (A great example is Winesap and Stayman Winesap, two very distinct apples that are often mixed up.)

The names Bedan and Bedan des Parts are currently being used interchangeably. Argh! Even the USDA collection in Geneva NY appears to have it wrong. DNA profiling has shown that their accession (PI_123733), called Bedan des Parts, matched the European (MUNQ 2377) Bedan. An initial examination of photos of PI_123733 appears to confirm that.

In Maine we have discovered a Bedan child on Mount Desert Island at Beech Hill Farm. The tree is exceedingly large and old—easily 120 years. Evidently many thousands of seedling rootstocks from the Normandy “cidre” mills were imported into the US long ago. Perhaps one of those rootstocks was planted out and never grafted—or the graft failed—and now a century later we have this massive seedling. It is a seedling of Bedan, not Bedan des Parts.