Adventurous in my walking, I studied the growing wood near my home. Not far from the cliff above Muddy Creek, I found an old cellar hole, nearby a settled pairing of scraggly lilac and apple tree. A bit further on along the road running east and west of Crow’s Pond in North Chatham near Eastward Ho! I found a number of old timers with out-of reach apples, fruit miniaturized from lack of care.
Heirloom apples are enjoying a resurgence! Nantucket Historical Association’s Kathrina Pearl is designing an apple orchard of antique varieties–Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, Sops of Wine, and a French baking apple from the 1500s, Calville Blanc d’Hiver. If the deer don’t get them she is looking forward to the day when they can ofter fresh squeezed cider and heirloom apple pies. Debbie and Eric Magnuson of Tiasquin Orchard in West Tisbury sell Macouns, McIntosh, and Liberty apples at Edgartown’s Morning Glory Farm.
Heirloom Apples and Other Orchard Fruits 