March 20, 2025

Terrible vole damage (the lower tan-colored area) on an unhappy apple tree. Massachusetts, March 2025.

Today in the orchard

I spent all day in the Finley Lane Orchard pruning apple trees. It was raw and misty outdoors but certainly preferable to being indoors. I was joined by Skylar Bodeo-Lomicky, my new apple student. We haven’t taken off the tree guards this spring since snow is still in the forecast, but we did see some vole damage on the unprotected apple seedlings that have been germinating throughout the orchard. Every fall we put spiral, plastic tree guards on the grafted trees that we remove in the spring. (We wrap older trees with trunks that are too large for the plastic tree guards with old window screen.)  The guards/ screening protect the tender tree bark from the hungry teeth of voles and mice during the late fall and winter when they tunnel under the snow and long grass looking for things to gnaw on. In a couple of weeks we’ll remove them all.

March 19, 2025

Today in the orchard

I spent the morning at the Maine Pomological Society (Pom Soc) spring meeting, early afternoon watching a webinar on DNA by Cameron Peace, and then rounded out the afternoon pruning pear trees.  What a day!  

The Pom Soc meetings provide excellent opportunities to meetup with other Maine growers, hear the latest research on growing apples, learn about other fruit crops (this year, hardy peach cultivars) as well as changes in state and federal policy. 

Cameron Peace (center) with Gayle Volk and John, Appleton, Maine 2024

The University of Idaho Annual Heritage Orchard Conference presents once-a-month talks from October to April by knowledgeable fruit growers, researchers, breeders and historians from around the US. Cameron's talk focused on the genetics of apples and the use of DNA technology in cultivar identification. All the past talks are archived at the University of  Idaho website (https://www.uidaho.edu/cals/sandpoint-organic-agriculture-center/conference). If you don’t know about the series, check it out. It’s excellent. 

March 18, 2025

Today in the orchard

I spent all day in our Finley Lane orchard pruning apple trees and clearing brush from along the fences. Laura Sieger stopped by the morning to cut more scionwood for Fedco. Cammy joined me for the afternoon. Jared Carr made an appearance late in the day bringing us scionwood from one of his discoveries, “Western Maine White.”  He had recently written to me about the apple, and it sounded like one that required a slot in our research orchard! 

Four Maine cider makers (and support staff), from left: Gene Cartwright, Zack Kaiser, Jared Carr and Angus Deighan, 2023

“The juice made from this apple is a beautiful mahogany and decently high in sugar with plenty of astringent and bitter tannin. When fermented it tastes like a wonderful English bittersweet cider that someone unfortunately put their cigarettes out in. When used in a blend it still isn’t pleasant. So I left the disappointing varietal bottles alone in the corner until I could decide what to do with them. 5 years later I had purchased my home and was cleaning the basement that was to become the cidery with my wife and thought we deserved a celebratory drink! I grabbed one of these old bottles with low expectations. I poured it into my favorite crystal snifter and when I took that first sip it was now like a wonderfully aged English bittersweet cider enjoyed in a pleasant cigar bar, or perhaps the notes of peat moss. Time had been wonderful to this bottle and I contemplated how I might recreate this on a larger scale! Just then my wife, who was still working, was sweeping in reverse and knocked my favorite glass with my favorite drink off of the table and onto the concrete floor. After my sadness had passed I got back to work, cleaning the rest of the room leaving that spot for last so I could at least enjoy the aroma for as long as possible.

Now after growing this tree for years, it isn’t particularly precocious or disease resistant. The fruit is actually mostly red when it gets adequate sunlight (I’m not going to change the name). Ultimately I don’t think it has commercial potential, but I still grow 3 trees that someday will produce cider to share with friends and family and will probably be the beverage that is poured at my funeral.”

March 17, 2025

Today in the orchard

Pipsqueak (Frostbite x Chestnut Crab).

It rained off and on all day. The ducks loved it. The stream that runs adjacent to their house is flowing with gusto, and they were frolicking in it all day. The wet dogs, on the other hand, were less enthusiastic. They stood by the porch door and looked longingly at us. We tried to ignore them while we organized scionwood orders and got them ready for shipping. 

One of the most exciting and rewarding things about growing rare—and sometimes weird—apples is that people actually learn about them and want to grow them. It’s hard to call these bizarre cultivars that we grow (and love) “popular”, but several have struck the fancy of more than a few growers. Take Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak is an excellent dessert (fresh eating) apple that we started from a Frostbite (aka MN 447) seed about twenty years ago. We only knew the one parent until we had it DNA profiled recently and discovered that the second parent is Chestnut Crab. Both apples are delicious, and both possess unusual genetic ancestry including atypical Malus (apple) species. That makes them very unlike your common Malus domestica. The Pipsqueak tree is vigorous and healthy, and a bite of the fruit will make you happy. Unfortunately it has two flaws for the commercial grower: the fruit size is small—only about 2”— and the skin is usually russeted. We love russet, but Hannaford and Shaws do not. Darn! Pipsqueak will never make it to the big time, but if you’re looking for a tasty apple treat—ripening in October in central Maine— try Pipsqueak!    

March 16, 2025

Today in the orchard

1760 Dantziger Kantenapfel

Lumpy Red from Harpswell

I went to Brunswick to give an afternoon talk at the Curtis Memorial Library. I rarely get asked to give late winter/spring talks. This one was fun and well-attended. Several friends who I hadn’t seen in some time where there. I grafted a Black Oxford tree on the spot and was able to avoid doing damage to my fingers or the library carpet. After the presentation we tasted apples from our rootcellar, including Frostbite, Roxbury Russet, Black Oxford, Ashmead’s Kernal and Hudson’s Golden Gem. All are still very tasty. One of the attendees told me about another Kavanagh tree Freeport that I hadn’t known about.

Later Alyssa Gravlik and I went down the Harpswell Neck peninsula to collect scions from the Dantziger Kantenapful tree, an apple that Roberto McIntyre introduced to me long ago. He called it Lumpy Red (an apt name). I was able to make a tentative ID using the 1760 Pomologia by Johann Hermann Knoop. Another highlight of our Harpswell tour was a stop at the amazing Baldwin tree that Roberto also introduced to me. That’s the tree from which our Baldwin scionwood comes.

March 15, 2025

Today in the orchard

Dave Fulton with one of his discoveries, November 2024

It has finally started to warm up in central Maine. Most of the snow is gone in our Finley Lane Orchard although in the woods there’s still some snow cover. Mud Season is almost here. This morning a large flock of grackles and one redwing blackbird showed up at our bird feeder. I love the thought that they were flying overhead, looked down and saw our place: “Dude! Check that out! Looks like an awesome spot to drop in and bulk up on some sunflower seeds!”

I decided it was time to cut the rest of the scionwood we need for this spring’s grafting. It was a long day. Cammy helped in the afternoon. Dave Fulton stopped by to cut scions of some of the rare, English cider apples we’ve imported from the UK over the past decade. Dave is assembling an impressive collection in Blue Hill.

March 14, 2025

Today in the orchard

Pi Day. Our old friends Phil and Deborah came over, and we pruned most of the day together. They have a farm in the Blue Hill area and are old hands at everything we do. Phil and I pruned in the BRC. I gave him (almost) complete say on all the cuts we made, while I cleared away competing blackberries and consulted as necessary. It was fun to see what another experienced pruner would do with our trees. (A little scary but fortunately I trust Phil!) We talked pretty much non-stop the whole time. What a great way to celebrate Pi Day (3.14).   We should have eaten a pie at lunch time, but we wanted to get back out to the orchard to keep pruning. 

Phil Norris and John - two old pruners cutting it up in the orchard on Pi Day.

 What are the best spring pie apples? Well, the Black Oxfords are the obvious choice; they are still in very good shape, and we love them. Northern Spy is also an excellent choice for March. Baldwin would be decent though we’ve already used them all. Fallawater and Northwestern Greening are two more. What we’ve called Cherryfield or Benton Red which might now, via DNA, be Salome is good too.  (So many names! Are any of them correct?)  We choose apples that are still firm and on the acidic—tart—side.  If you can’t remember what apples make the best pies, think of Jamie Tartt, the darling football player in Ted Lasso.  He’s got the right name. He’s tart —a little on the acidic side—but always fun and full of surprises. Just like a great pie. Happy Pi Day!

March 13, 2025

Today in the orchard

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)

I pruned most of the day in the orchard we call the BRC. The hours flew by as I snipped and trimmed. No chainsaws needed. I completed the first ring around the orchard that’s exactly one acre.  We have fifty-eight apple trees within the space. Most of the trees are thirty feet apart, although a few are closer. All are on “standard” seedling rootstocks. The oldest trees are now fourteen years old.
All around and in between the apple trees are companion plants, hundreds of them. Some we introduced but most either pre-date the apples or have appeared over time on their own.  The most common native woody plant in the BRC is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). It’s a small, tough-wooded, multi-stemmed shrub with smooth, gray bark that grows to be about 8 ft tall. We have dozens of clumps (is clump a scientific term?) It’s called Winterberry for a reason. The fall-winter berries can be incredibly beautiful although at this time of year they are rather shriveled up. I have cut some of them back as the adjacent apple trees have gotten larger, but mostly I leave them alone to do their thing. They are great companions.  

March 12, 2025

Today in the orchard

Cammy and I pruned most of the day. It was sunny until mid-afternoon, and the temperature was in the high 20’s—perfect for being in the orchard. I worked entirely in the orchard we call the BRC. My strategy is to work around the entire perimeter, then continue in a progression of concentric circles getting closer and closer to the center. Most of the pruning I do is not on the apple trees but on the hundreds of “companion” plants that fill the orchard and surround the apple trees. The companions play an integral role in creating what we hope will be a balanced ecosystem in the orchard. As we prune the apple trees, we collect scionwood for grafting. If you’re interested in obtaining scionwood from us this year, place your order soon or it will be too late. Once the prunings are scattered and mixed up on the snow, they become nameless trimmings, valuable for chipping but not for grafting.

March 11, 2025

Today in the orchard

John and Amanda Beal, the Ag commissioner, planting trees at the Governor’s house in Augusta, 2019.

Today I paid a visit to the Blaine House in Augusta where I’ve been planting a Maine State Orchard that will eventually be sixteen apple trees—one originating in each of our counties. The eleven trees planted so far look good. This spring I hope to plant three more.  Planting time is just around the corner. In another month or so we’ll be out there digging holes. Get your shovels ready! 

March 10, 2025

Today in the orchard

John’s only public talk this winter will be this coming Sunday, March 16th at 2:00 PM at the Curtis Memorial Library on 23 Pleasant Street in Brunswick. It’s not often that John gets to do winter-spring talks, and this one will be a perfect opportunity to look at what to do in the orchard in spring time. He promises to include lots of useful information and several fun surprises. There’s no charge for the talk, but registration is required and space is limited.  Register today if you’d like to join in on a March orchard celebration. Hope to see you there. Here’s the link to register.

February 24, 2025

Melissa pruning on a chilly day

Today in the orchard

Melissa Madden joined us for a day of pruning in the orchard. Melissa is a New York orchardist and cider-maker who has been visiting central Maine for the past month. Cammy, Melissa and I pruned a number of the larger trees in our “Finley Lane” test orchard. One of Melissa’s specialties is looping and weaving branches as a strategy for reducing vigor and increasing productivity. You can see one of her loops in the foreground of the picture. We did a lot of looping today. The air temperature was milder than it’s been, but the combination of a solid cloud cover and a steady breeze made for a chilly day. Still we had an excellent and whimsical time. Pruning season is in full swing. 

Here’s an apple Haiku for today from Anthony Neils:

“Learn from plants” he says
Now I’m stuck outside freezing
Maybe he was right

February 22, 2025

Today in the orchard

Lizzie and Khris packing CSA apples, Fall 2024

Announcing out on a limb rare apple csa - 2025

We’re so excited to let you know that Lizzie and Khris Hogg who will be taking over the CSA in 2025 and beyond have a new website that will answer all your CSA questions. We don’t expect much to change from the 2024 CSA as they plan to keep the same distribution sites (including our barn) and number of deliveries, but surely they will add their own sparkle to the newsletters and recipes (Khris is the fantastic and innovative chef of their homestead restaurant). They may even track down some never-before-tasted apples for you to try. For all you apple lovers who have taken an apple journey with us over the past 16 years, we hope you will continue adventuring with Khris and Lizzie. They know their stuff and are as apple crazy as we are, well almost.

February 21, 2025

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

South Dakota Ben and sauce

Today I begin to put several late apples to the “sauce test.” The first is South Dakota Ben, an oddly-named apple that attracted the attention of Cammy and me when we were exploring the Geneva collection in 2016. We liked it enough to topwork it into our test orchard the following spring. South Dakota Ben is a 1938 introduction of Niels Hansen. Although I don’t think its parentage has been confirmed via DNA, according to Bulletin 339, “New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest”, June 1940, it’s a cross of Jonathan and Tony crab. Tony crab is thought to be a cross of M. baccata and McMahan White (aka McMahon etc). South Dakota Ben has fruited for us annually for the past few years, and the fruit quality has been excellent. It ripens late in the fall and keeps quite well in the rootcellar. Supermarkets will not be clammering for them in the foreseeable future as they they are about the size of a Chestnut Crab, but the desert quality is good, as is the vigor, productivity and the storability (is that a word?). The sauce—I can now attest—is decent with good texture, an apricot color and interesting flavor. The fruit is also beautiful. So far the tree appears to be hardy. What a combination. In fact, I’m eating a bowl of the sauce mixed with my morning oatmeal as I write this report. 

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