A New Orchard

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This week, we were excited like children waiting to unwrap Christmas presents. The reason is that we were finally able to take delivery of our very own Apple trees. These were specifically grafted for us over a year and a half ago and they were now ready for planting.

As far as orchards go, our plans were to create a rather small one consisting of some 100 trees. However, the varieties we chose are rather uncommon.

The first step, once we had the trees on hand, was to keep the roots properly watered. We did this every day by soaking them in one of our rain barrels.

Keeping the saplings watered as we prepare our plot of land 

The next step, proved rather difficult. The concept was to create a grid of staggered rows. Simple enough, until you realize that we were aiming to establish our small orchard on a hill with three rather steep gradients of up to 20 feet.

After a tedious amount of measuring, we were able to plot out our planting holes using our backhoe. Since these Apples were grafted to dwarf trees, we decided to use staggered rows with a spacing of 10 feet.

In the distance, our new orchard is laid out and ready for planting.

We planted the trees with a mix of our soil and some horse manure. Luckily, we managed to accomplish the whole thing before the start of this year's first snow fall.

This new orchard consists of 10 varieties. Perhaps one of these is well known to some. The others are primarily old heirloom Apples with a couple of exceptions.

So here's what we got:

Cole's Quince: Known as Pear Apple or Quince Apple, this variety dates from as early as 1806 in Cornish, Maine. Raised by Captain Henry Cole and described by his son in "American Fruit Trees" in 1849.

Cole's Quince

Golden Russet: Perhaps the best known of our varieties, this is of American origin from Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1700's.

Golden Russet

Kandil Sinap: This is a uniquely shaped Apple from the Crimea or Turkey, known in the 1800's but perhaps much older.

Kandil Sinap

Baldwin (Pecker): A monument was erected in Wilmington (near Lowell) Massachusetts in 1895 to the Baldwin Apple. It marks the estate where in 1793, Samuel Thompson discovered the first Pecker Apple tree (later called Baldwin) while locating the line for the Middlesex Canal.

Baldwin

Karmijn de Sonnaville: This is a variety bred by Piet de Sonnaville working in Wageningen in the Netherlands in 1949. It is a cross of Cox's Orange Pippin and the Jonathan.

Karmijn de Sonnaville

Browns Apple: This variety is originally from south Devon in England, from the early 1900's.

Browns Apple

Bulmers Norman: Originally from Normandy, France and developed by H.P. Bulmers (of Srongbow fame) in Hereford, England at the beginning of the 20th century.

Bulmers Norman

Michelin: Originated in Normandy in about 1872 with M. Legrand of Yvetot, Normandy. It was brought to Herefordshire in 1884.

Michelin

Kerry Irish Pippin: Originated in Ireland in 1802.

Kerry Irish Pippin

And finally, the Frostbite which originated in Minnesota in the 1940's.

Frostbite

This collection of Apples will be added to our 2 Empire and one McIntosh, along with our Crab Apple tree (which we have yet to identify) and our five old Pippin trees which we now believe to be Cox's Orange Pippin, based on the fruits we found this year.

Our very own Cox's Orange Pippin

You may wonder why these varieties. They will be for eating and cooking of course, but our key objective is to create a unique cider, perhaps resembling something which may have been in vogue in Victorian times.

We'll end this week with a picture of the farm as we now struggle with our first (and rather early) snowfall.

If this keeps up, it will become difficult to finish our Fall chores.