February 20, 2025

The Perfect Scion

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Interested in grafting your own trees this spring? Check out our list of available cultivars. You can purchase scions through our on-line store.

Now a word or two about shipping scionwood. Seems like a simple thing to send a stick through the mail, but there is definitely a right and wrong way to do it. Recently friends received some extremely rare, at-risk cultivars for their preservation efforts. The scions arrived moldy and unusable. This was because some well-meaning person had wrapped the scionwood in wet paper towels. Such a common error and SO unnecessary! 

I cut the one-year-old growth, label it and successfully send it all over the US. Scionwood is alive, resilient and tough--it doesn't need additional moisture. When I ship scionwood, I cut it and put it in a plastic bag with NO added moisture. I do “double-bag” it to insure that it doesn’t dry out as it travels. Some people dip the ends of the sticks in wax to minimize drying out.  That’s a fine strategy although I don’t bother. Others wipe the scions in a diluted bleach solution. This also makes sense, although I have never done so. I do typically cut a bit of extra wood if there is enough growth to do so. Then, when we graft, we cut a little wood off the butt end of the scion to make sure we are getting green, not dried out, wood. I have never had a problem with scionwood arriving at its destination dried out.  For more information about cutting and storing scionwood, click here.

Here’s an apple Haiku for today.  This one from Brooke Kulaga;

Seed sprouts into tree
limbs chopped off for something new
Seedlings fruit unknown

February 17, 2025

Sueboo Russets and Sue Gawler’s 2010 Maine Ecosystem guide.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

As the wind blew clouds of snow back and forth across the farm today, I decided I should “take a virtual trip” back to my favorite childhood place, Belgrade Lakes, Maine. I pulled out a bag of apples from Buttermilk Hill on the west side of Great Pond just south of Belgrade Lakes village. This is the original site of the unidentified apple we’ve been referring to as the “Guptill Lavender” because it grew on the Guptill Road. That tree is now dead, but we have grafted it multiple times, including into our orchards here in Palermo.

The apple in question today, however, is a yellow, long-stemmed, fall apple from further up the Guptill Road at the Gawler Farm. The apple was a favorite of the late Susan (Sueboo) Gawler, long time Belgrade resident, exceptional botanist, ecologist and author. I’ve been attempting to help identify the apple off and on for several years and was given a bag of fruit this fall from a tree at North Branch Farm in Monroe that was grafted from the original Buttermilk Hill tree. 

The Gawler family calls the apple Sueboo or Sueboo Russet. The yellow fruit is roundish-oblate, medium-sized, with a large, russet splash surrounding the stem and partly covered with russet netting and patches. One of the apple’s most distinctive characteristics is its very long, thin stem. That feature led me to two apples: “Longstem” of Connecticut and “Longstem” of Massachusetts, two old cultivars that may or may not be one and the same. The descriptions of both apples are by no means complete, but they do match “Sueboo Russet” as far as they go. The season also makes sense, and the stem is definitely long! 

The next step is to do a DNA profile and see what comes up for a match—if anything—and what we can learn about the ancestry. Knowing both will help with the effort to identify the apple.  I’ll collect some scionwood this winter and graft trees in the spring. I’m also hoping to see photos of the original tree or, better yet, pay a visit to Buttermilk Hill and see the tree myself. Sueboo will live on.

February 15, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Checking out the Gravensteins in Dan Bussey’s Illustrated History. Note the "Red Gravenstein" sliced on the plate.

The beauty of these cold blustery winter days is that they provide an opportunity to rummage through the boxes of apples in the rootcellar and pull out the promising submissions from last fall for identification. Today Alyssa Gavlik and I tackled the apples we gathered with Todd Little-Siebold on Swans Island off Mount Desert in October. The rootcellar has been good to the apples this winter, and all the Swans Island submissions still look great. One cultivar in particular was a focus of attention: a possible Red Gravenstein sport. 

As readers of this report know, Gravenstein is one of the most important apples in the world. However, even with a lot of DNA analysis, its origin and parentage remain a mystery. We do know that it is exceedingly old. Pomologists have made an assortment of pronouncements about where it came from. Most of them (or all) are likely incorrect. To further complicate the story Gravenstein has “spawned” a large number of sports adding another degree of challenge to  the identifications.

Researching sports comes with its own set of confusing elements, not the least of which are the names. As far as current technology can determine, sports and the original trees on which they originated have the same DNA profile - essentially they are like identical twins. So it would make a lot of sense to include the name of the parent tree in the name of the sport. Unfortunately that has not been the accepted practice. Identifying all the sports of Gravenstein with their unrelated names is definitely a challenge. (Try finding all the Gala sports by name sometime, some of which are downright bizarre.)  One of these days, someone should write an article including all the Gravenstein sports from around the world with their cultivar names, histories and photos/paintings of the fruit. The same with all the Gala sports and the Delicious sports too. So much to do!

February 14, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

(Mount) Fuji

Today is Valentine’s Day. Could there be a better place to spend this day of Love than out in the orchard?

In Dostoevsky’s words, “Humanity will be renewed in the Orchard, and the Orchard will restore it – that is the formula.”

Or as Thich Nhat Hahn wrote: “Have a look at the apple tree in your yard. Look at it with complete attention. It is truly a miracle. If you notice it, you will take good care of it, and you too are part of its miraculousness.”

Just as there are many apple varieties, each with its own shape, size, color, and specialty, “there are many paths leading to the top of Mt Fuji, but there is only one summit—love.” (Morihei Ueshiba)

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day wherever you are. I’ll be out in the orchard, of course. Fill your day with love!

February 8, 2025

Today in the Orchard

When attempting to confirm the names of the apples we grow, propagate and disseminate, we have many resources to assist us. The value of the powerful tool of DNA technology is undeniable, but it’s not always necessary. The historic books and paintings also play an essential role.

A case in point is the historic English dessert cultivar, Margil. Although not well known, Margil has a reputation as one of the best historic dessert cultivars. It is also a parent of Cox’s Orange Pippin and Ribston Pippin. I was aware of Margil but had not given it much thought until a few years ago when it began to come up now and then in conversation. It sounded like an amazing apple. I thought I ought to learn more.

There were rumblings of concern that what were being passed around as Margil scions and trees were not Margil. So I decided to see for myself and topworked “Margil” from Kevin Clark at Rose Hill Farm and “Margil” from Ian Merwin at Black Diamond Cider side by side onto the same tree.

Subsequently someone—it may have been Laura Sieger—saw the supposed Margil fruit at Rose Hill and recognized it as the wonderful, but very different, russet dessert cultivar, Pomme Grise. Case closed, I thought: Rose Hill had it wrong, and Black Diamond had it right. This winter I got in touch with Chris Negroida who has worked with Ian Merwin for many years. Turns out Chris now thinks they have also Pomme Grise, not Margil. 

A reading of Hogg (1886), and a look at the USDA watercolor in Bussey (2019) show the two apples to be very different from one another. Although both cultivars are relatively small, Margil is red and conic while Pomme Grise is oblate and russeted. Looking at the GRIN website, it appears as though the USDA Geneva accession Margil PI_264558 is correct. 

How Margil got mixed up with Pomme Grise remains a mystery. It could be a nursery error that has now become wide-spread. Beware: what you think is Margil may not be! This spring I will topwork Margil PI_264558 from the USDA Geneva collection. I’m hoping that the mistake did not also occur in Geneva and that they still have it right. 

Here’s a Haiku for today for all you phenotypers, by Brooke Kulaga:

One opened, one closed
calyxes differ, blush same
Same yet different

February 5, 2025

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.

Here’s an apple Haiku for today by Brooke Kulag:
Ascending basins
Climbing through russet netting
Exploring the fruit

February 4, 2025

RARE FRUIT SCIONWOOD AND APPLE TREES FOR SALE

You can now find our annual assortment of odd and unusual apple trees as well as apple and pear scionwood for sale on our website. These are not your normal “regular” cultivars. They’re the ones we’re particularly interested in as we continue to research promising, interesting or just plain wonderful dessert, culinary and cider fruit.  The trees are ones that we have propagated for ourselves, and we always graft a few extras of each, thus insuring that we have plenty for us and to share.  The scionwood all comes from our test orchards here at the farm. You can download pdfs of the scionwood and trees that include a short description of each cultivar. Once you know what you want, please order directly from our on-line store . If you have questions, feel free to email us. If you have apples you think we should be growing in our test orchard, please make a pitch!  The weirder, the better. 

Here’s a Haiku for today.  This one from Anthony Neils

Plant trees for the fleas
or plant pears for your heirs
now there’s no space left

January 31, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Recent art from Bee Mixter (age 4)

Laura and Jacob came over, and we cut scionwood together for Fedco throughout the farm orchards. They may return for more wood at some point but, for now, it appears as though all the wood for Fedco is cut. We were able to do some pruning along the way, especially on some of the larger trees. The most popular cultivars were Hewe’s Virginia Crab, Wickson and our very own Pipsqueak. It was a cold morning (-12F) but warmed up quickly.

Today we begin a series in the orchard report. My apple class students wrote Haiku poems on their last day of class. We’ll feature some of the most fun periodically over the course of the next few weeks. 

Haiku by Anthony Neils
People like apples
or people are like apples
No, I like apples

January 29, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was my last class at Colby College. For the past month I’ve taught eighteen students how to phenotypically describe, evaluate, and identify apples. Each of them researched, phenotyped, photographed and created a report on one of eighteen of the new patented/trademarked cultivars including at least several I’d never heard of (Envy, Kanzi, Lady Alice). We did have to fudge a bit due to lack of apples. (I couldn’t find any Jazz.) So we included Gala, Frostbite (MN 447) and Redfield. 

During the class we did three tastings. In the first two Frostbite was the undisputed winner. In the third tasting (which didn’t include Frostbite) Northern Spy won, Ashmead’s Kernal was runner-up, Honeycrisp was third and Milo Gibson and Golden Russet tied for fourth. If you don’t know Milo Gibson, check it out. It is a first-rate dessert fruit, late ripening and often has a licorice flavor. 

Yesterday the class visited a very neglected apple tree next to Colby’s Rugby field. It does not appear to have been pruned since Colby was a farm, not a college. That would be about 1950. The tree is nearly dead, but I did spot a few live twigs. I will collect scionwood, graft and send a few leaves to Cameron.  So ends my professorial career! 

Bunk’s apple class, next to the Rugby field January 29, 2025

January 25, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

I went up to Poverty Lane Orchard in Lebanon, NH with three friends to cut rare scionwood this morning. Poverty Lane is the home orchard of Steve Wood and Farnum Hill Cider. Steve was instrumental in the revival of cider-making in the US. He was also a huge help to me when Fedco began to sell cider apple trees decades ago. For years I would make an annual trip to Poverty Lane to cut scionwood for Fedco.

Today I cut “False Chisel Jersey,” “False Major,” “Michelin” and “Red Streak,” four cultivars I never cut in the many winters I visited Poverty Lane. All four have become of interest to me in recent years with the advances in DNA technology. False Chisel and False Major are unidentified English cider apples whose scionwood was obtained by Steve from the USDA Geneva collection about 30 years ago. Michelin is one of the most widely grown cider apples in the world. DNA profiling has shown that many tens of thousands of Michelin trees have been incorrectly identified. Redstreak is a classic English cider name that could be historically significant. I will graft all four this spring and then send leaves to Washington State University for DNA profiling. I’m very excited to see the results.

January 22, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Last night was —24F, the coldest night in a few years.  The truck engine moaned and groaned but, in the end, it turned over and came to life.  I taught another session in my month-long Colby short term “Jan Plan.” Each of my 18 students is doing an individual project focused on a modern cultivar, most of them patented, trade-marked or both. Today the students were working on doing their phenotypic descriptions, after which we did a tasting of the 18 cultivars, all but three of which came from local supermarkets. One—Pinova—came from Scott Farm in Vermont. We grew the Redfield and Frostbite. I chose Redfield for its red flesh, and Frostbite because of its flavor and texture. Each student got three votes. They could only vote once per cultivar. Could it be time to put Frostbite in the supermarkets?

Here are the results (number of votes following the name):
Frostbite—11
Cosmic Crisp—7
Opal—6
Rubyfrost—6
SweeTango—5
Kanzi—5
Sugarbee—4
Pink Lady—2
Honeycrisp—2
Envy—2
Evercrisp—1
Lady Alice—1
Pinova—1
Autumn Glory—0
Gala—0
Juici—0
Redfield—0
Snapdragon—0

January 21, 2025

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.

January 20, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Last night we had our first real snow in a few weeks. The rain of two nights ago washed away the remaining snow, but the temperatures dropped all day, and the snow began by late evening.  Today was cold and windy. The orchard is once again covered with snow. I taught a grafting class to my Colby students in the afternoon. Only two of them needed bandaids!  Having none, we were able to make do with masking tape. By late evening the temperature had dropped to -10F.  It promises to be a cold night on the farm.

The “BRC” orchard in 2015 when the trees were young, before we put up a deer fence. The tripods around the young apple trees were wrapped in chicken wire to fend off the deer. 

January 19, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we cleaned up after the Wassail. The rain washed away the snow, providing an opportunity to do some much needed nursery work. I was able to reset the landscape fabric between the rows of one-year-old grafted trees and new seedlings. I also put on some tree-guards that got missed back in November.  We may receive our first large snow tonight. February is just around the  corner. The days will be clear, cool and bright. It will be time to don the sunglasses and spend many glorious hours in the orchards pruning the trees and collecting scionwood. 

January 18, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This afternoon and evening we celebrated Wassail, the centuries-old tradition of giving thanks to the apple trees for the harvest last fall while expressing our hope for a bountiful crop in the season to come. Wassail is traditionally celebrated on the twelfth night or January 17. The tradition originated in Great Britain and has both Celtic and Christian roots. Every village and county has its own version, and so too have we made the Super Chilly Farm Wassail our own.

With the support of those who love us, Wassail is a time to let go of all ill-will, anger, jealousy, fear, worry, grudges and any other unwanted thoughts, feelings and actions. Wassail is an opportunity for us to embrace the wonder and magic of every moment. We give thanks for our human community as well as the plants who feed us, clothe us, shelter us and keep us warm. The trees whose breath we breathe every day also give us fruit to fill our cider glasses!

A few dozen of our friends and neighbors braved a cold, light rain to celebrate around the bonfire, sing songs, toast the apple trees and listen to the trees as they imparted their wisdom. This was followed by feasting, cider-drinking and more revelry inside Marc’s house here on the farm. It was a magical evening. Wassail!

January 13, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

The 2025 orchard season has begun! December and early January is break-time from the orchard. In mid-January we begin cleaning up the edges of the orchard to generate firewood, pruning the fruit trees and collecting scionwood. Cutting firewood along the edges of the orchards helps to get more sun to the trees and creates giant piles of branches that will be chipped in the spring and spread throughout the orchards.  Firewood cutting continues all winter. Today Jacob Mentlik, Laura Sieger and I spent the afternoon cutting scionwood for Fedco while pruning here and there in the process.  Our focus today was in the orchard we call the BRC. It was cold and clear and a perfect day to be out in the orchard.   

November 28, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today's SCF Orchard report will focus on the wonderful cultivar, Grimes Golden.  The fruit of Grimes Golden is medium-sized (2.5"), roundish-conic and somewhat blocky. The skin tends to be a soft-opaque-yellow color, with scattered conspicuous russet lenticels and a medium-sized russet splash that fills most of the cavity and sometimes spills over the edge and down the sides of the fruit. Occasionally there is a faint pink or orange blush. The basin is wide, medium-deep, abrupt and furrowed. Most people know Golden Delicious which is the famous child of Grimes Golden and is visually similar. Although it is safe to describe the shape of Grimes Golden as “round-conic,” it is not remotely as conic as Golden Delicious. Grimes Golden is more blocky. Grimes Golden’s furrowed basin is not as pronounced as Golden Delicious. The basin on Golden Delicious can be so deeply furrowed that it is called “crowned.” The basin on Grimes Golden is distinctly furrowed, but it’s hard to call it crowned. The stem is medium-long and thin on both cultivars, although more noticeably so on Golden Delicious. The skin of Grimes Golden tends to be a softer, more opaque color, whereas the Golden Delicious skin tends to be very shiny.  

A distinctive feature of Grimes Golden is that it ripens over several weeks. In Maine, it tends to drop its fruit beginning about mid-October, dropping several every day as they ripen. Although this would be considered a flaw for the commercial orchardist, it can be a virtue for the home grower.  We collect the fruit every day off the ground when they begin to ripen and drop.  At that moment, they are perfect for fresh eating and cooking. We allow the first 15-25% to drop, at which time we pick the rest and put them into storage. Grimes Golden is not a true winter keeper although they do keep until January in the root cellar. They makes a thick, sweet cider and a very decent sauce. Although they originated in West Virginia, they have been grown in Maine for well over 100 years and do well in much of the state.  Ours was ID'ed by Tom Burford who grew up in Virginia and knew the apple well. The tree from which we took our scionwood grows on the east side of the Jones road, about  mile south of Rte 3.

November 8, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Jess, Laura and a lot of Asian Pears

Laura and Jess came over and pressed Asian Pears. The pears were so juicy they almost didn’t need to use the press at all - the juice streamed out of the pomace. Amazing. I did a few last tree guards in the BRC, gathered a few last DNA leaves, put away equipment for the winter and spread some compost in the BRC. The gardens and orchards are looking almost ready for winter.

November 7, 2024

Kathy and Bunk at Cider Days, 2016

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This morning we returned to the Apple Farm to say goodbye for the season and pick up a few last minute apples ordered through the CSA. I spent the afternoon putting on tree guards and doing chores before I head to the UK in a few days. Today is my sister Kathy’s birthday. She has spent much time on the farm over the decades.

November 6, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Two apples in the BRC

We spread out across the state today delivering the last 2024 CSA apple shares plus the extra storage apples that members had ordered. If all goes as planned, Khris and Lizzie Hogg will take it over the CSA in 2025, and we will move on to other projects. The CSA started as a one-year trail - we never anticipated that it would grow to 170 shareholders and take over our falls for 16 years. We loved all the rare apple fans that we met, their excitement for the new and weird, and the apple love that spread to 4 states through the CSA We are delighted that it will continue on in capable and enthusiastic hands. Back on the farm I put on tree-guards in the BRC. It seemed like the best place in the world to be on a day when others were contemplating the election.