March 2011

We will be at the Boston Flower and Garden Show March 16th thru 20th (http://www.paragonexpo.com/index.php/BFS-General/)

Also note the Farm Store re-opens April 1st!

Did you know March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day? Me neither, until I was reading the Farmer’s Almanac recently. No, apples are not ready in New England in March, but it is the time to prune apple trees. Fruit trees must be dormant when pruning. At Smith Farm we have several thousand trees to prune and there is no “pruning machine”. Although air pruners and pole saws reduce the work, one must still circle each tree on foot; decide what needs to go and what will produce the most and best fruit for the season. Broken or diseased branches are easy to spot and remove but what about pruning for the future? The orchard manager must decide how the tree wants to grow, what branches he wants to remove, and how to get the best fruit.

So what does Johnny Appleseed have to with all this? When settlers first arrived in the new world, there were no cultivated fruit trees except a few wild crab apple, cherry and plum plantings. For a hundred years or more apple trees were grown from seed. Johnny Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) was an eccentric but resourceful Massachusetts native who travelled routes most likely to be settled in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and other states purchasing land and planting seedlings. By the 1840s he owned 1200 acres of land for nurseries and hundreds of varieties of apples were grown. Most of these varieties are now only notations in old books. Who has recently perused their local Walmart and found a Ben Davis? How about a Limbertwig or Duchess of Oldenburg? I didn’t think so. These “antique” (or heirloom as its commonly referred to now) varieties are mostly extinct. Many didn’t taste very good anyways and were used for cider (refrigeration not yet being invented for long term storage).

Trees are now propagated by grafting, a technique done in March by joining a twig from one tree (called a scion) to a host root stock. The result is a tree true to the variety of the scion. Trees from seeds result in a “chance seedling” – a cross between whatever varieties were pollinated to produce the apple the seed came from – the result is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. At Smith Farm we are lucky enough to grow several antique varieties and even a chance seedling that actually tastes good. Our antique varieties ripen mostly in late October and include Baldwin, Russet, Northern Spy, Spencer, Rome and Winesap. Our chance seedling is called “Cue’s Favorite”, so called for the nickname of the person who’s field in central MA it was found growing. Cue’s Favorite is in limited supply and available only at Smith Farm sometime near the end of September to mid October.

So if you’re in the mood to taste something different and feeling as adventurous as Johnny Appleseed, come to Smith Farm in the fall. If you’re feeling as ambitious (or maybe eccentric) as Johnny and would like to plant your own home orchard, visit us in the spring. We have a small but nice selection of commonly grown varieties potted and ready to plant and can order other varieties as well…remember you need two different variety trees if you want fruit (or a crabapple tree in the yard will suffice too.)

PS. A note to our Facebook friends…due to the limited amount of time we have for updating the web page and blog and the upcoming busy planting season, we cannot always answer questions posted to Facebook. It is best to call the store once we open. Thanks.