An Affair with Heirloom Apples and Artisan Cheese

Heirloom apples and Vermont artisan cheese – a match made in heaven

I have always wanted to photograph an apple orchard through the seasons and readily accepted an invitation to do so at historic Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont.  A working farm since 1791, the farm’s apples were shipped around the world in the 20th century.  As time moved on Scott Farm slowly fell into neglect until 1995 when David Tansey began work to revive the 571 acres and 23 historic buildings and structures now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The orchard was transformed from one variety (McIntosh) conventionally sprayed to 90 varieties ecologically grown.

Seven years have passed since my first visit.  I’m still intrigued with the early apples of August, Russian heirlooms with new to me, old to the world names — Red Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, and the ghostly pale aptly named Yellow Transparent.

The Yellow Transparent is the first heirloom apple to ripen at the orchard, ready to eat as early as the end of July.

I’m fond of “leather coats” — rough, brown-skinned russets with flavors veering from pear to citrus to nut such as Hudson’s Golden Gem, an American apple from the early 1900s with a flavor and texture similar to a Basque pear.  It is delicious eating out of hand but even more so in a leafy green salad loaded with blue cheese.  Belle de Boskoop from 1850s Netherlands is tart when first picked and is good for strudel but sweetens and mellows in time when I discovered it tasted fine with a slice of brie.

I photographed harvest the first year and as it ended so did my frequent visits to southern Vermont.  I returned for winter pruning pictures but missed a long sought winter snow.  Fuzzy buds  swelled as April waned until one misty morning in May the bees arrived bumping along in back of a pickup truck in colorful painted hives.

Colorful beehives are home to honeybees in the Scott Farm Vermont heirloom apple orchard.

They hummed and buzzed from tree to tree as I hummed and photographed apple blossoms taking flight on the wind.

Scott Farm – a Vermont heirloom apple orchard nearing the height of blossom

David walks in the orchard most days after work taking in the seasonal transformations and making observations of “things that need doing”.

Sometimes he would find me crouched behind my camera marveling over the intensity of color on tree-held apples as the day drew down and light lingered low.  We would have brief conversations, nothing very serious, until one day nearing the end of harvest he told me he would bake me an apple pie filled with heirlooms if I would stop by his home.

As my affection for antique apples grew and my photographic affair with the orchard intensified,  Cupid struck with an arrow after Pomona nudged Aphrodite. I fell like a tree-ripened apple for the man who saved the farm as he had fallen for me.  We married in the orchard a year after his apple pie courtship, our only witnesses the apple trees and David’s black lab, Stella, who we call Dairy Queen for her love of cheese and all things dairy.

Me – Jane! – and my husband, David Tansey (and shadow Stella), moments after taking our wedding vows above the heirloom apple orchard at Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont. Heirloom apples brought us together – Cupid, Pomona, and Aphrodite helped too.

My heirloom apple pie baking man is also a great lover of cheese.  We have savored many a pie with a traditional pairing of Vermont cheddar and have been trying our hand at matching heirloom apples to various made in Vermont cheeses. (see related post on David’s easy pie crust)

Roxbury Russet (one of my favorite “leather coats”) introduced in 1649 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, is filled with sugar and is known as a great hard cider apple but we like it sliced with a bit of Gore Dawn Zola from Green Mountain Blue Cheese.

Roxbury Russet, an American heirloom apple from Roxbury, Massachusetts is delicious with a soft, creamy cheese

The tangy, semi-firm blue is also fantastic with the very small Api  commonly called the Lady Apple. Api was known in ancient Rome and found in Louis the XIII 17th century orchard.  Refrigerated this cheery red and green to red and yellow, child-size Christmas apple stays crisp long after harvest, its perfumed skin and flesh improving in flavor.

The Lady, an ancient heirloom apple, is also known as the Christmas apple. A good choice with a semi-firm blue such as Gore Dawn Zola from Green Mountain Blue Cheese.

17th century Ananas Reinette from the Netherlands is named for its pineapple-like flavor, the fully ripened crisp yellow fruit  develops a juicy, sweet-sharp taste that will go a long way in cutting the tangy bite of Vermont Butter & Cheese goat milk feta.

Ananas Reinette, a 17th century heirloom apple from the Netherlands with Vermont Butter & Cheese goat milk feta. The sweet sharp heirloom apple takes the tangy bite out of the feta.

Claygate Pearmain is an old English apple from the 1820s found growing in a hedge.  A small russeted apple,  it often develops a bit of crimson blush where it has been kissed by the sun.  Crisp with a juicy sugary flavor, the yellowish flesh is excellent with Blue Ledge Farm’s Camembrie, a semi-soft cow cheese from a predominately goat cheese maker.  We also smothered slices of Ashmead’s Kernel with Camembrie and devoured them all.  Raised in the 18th century by a Dr. Ashmead of Gloucester, England, I like them for their crunch and tartness when first picked.  Later on they may develop a nutlike flavor that goes well with most any blue-veined cheese.

The English heirloom apple, Ashmead’s Kernal, tart when first picked, is excellent smothered in Blue Ledge Farm’s Camembrie.

Stella loves apples and seeks out drops of Black Gilliflower also known as Sheepnose for its distinctive shape.  Possibly a Connecticut apple from the late 1700s, it has a deep reddish purple skin and in a good year will exude a clove-like scent, hence gilliflower.  We sampled it with Ascutney Mountain from Cobb Hill Cheese, a beautiful raw milk Jersey cow cheese – warm yellow color and a nutty, sweet taste.  This is a delicious cheese that would also be good with Orleans Reinette, a French apple introduced in 1776 with a rich sweet nutty flavor.

The Black Gilliflower (aka Sheepnose) heirloom apple has a distinctive shape. When growing conditions are just right you may catch a hint of clove that goes well with Ascutney Mountain from Cobb Hill Cheese.

This past winter we tried one more cheese before the apples went by, Autumn Oak from Willow Hill.  A raw milk sheep cheese we liked it best grated over a mix of apples in a simple salad dressed with a bit of fruity olive oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar.

Stella, David’s shadow, loves heirloom apples and is diligent at picking up drops from the floor of Scott Farm’s heirloom apple orchard.

Parts of this story originally appeared in Culture:  the word on cheese.

David Tansey is the founder of The Landmark Trust USA and past president of Landmark and The Scott Farm.  He was involved in every step of revitalizing Landmark Trust USA and Scott Farm properties.

Please ask Jane Booth for permission to reproduce her copyrighted photographs and/or writing. Email jane.booth.1@gmail.com or call (802) 866-3329.   Jane has produced stories about gardens and small farms for Gardens Illustrated, Yankee Magazine, Country Living, Country Living Gardens, Better Homes & Gardens, Local Banquet, New Old House Journal, and Cape Cod & Islands Home where she created an ongoing column and feature stories.