Resources: Heirloom Apples & Other Edibles
It’s fall and that means apples. Mr Chiots is an avid apple fan, both the fruit and the computers. When we head to the market he’s at the apple booth asking about new and interesting varieties to try.
Last summer we visited Seed Savers Exchange and spent time in the heirloom apple orchard. We were blown away by all the beautiful heirloom apples and grapes. We even picked a few up off the ground and tasted them, something they allow and encourage.
Now that we have a larger piece of land, Mr Chiots and I have plans to put in a few more apple trees. In my dreams, a few of them will become espaliers. There are a few old apple trees with the property, most likely we don’t need to add any more. But can you really resist the wonderful heirloom varieties when you read their descriptions?
Through the years, I’ve been collecting links for places that sell heirloom apples. Here are the ones I have found, please mention any you know of in the comments and I’ll add them to the list. Most of these places offer other varieties of fruits, nuts, and perennial edibles as well.
Cloud Mountain Farm Center – Cloud Mountain Farm Center is a working 20 acre farm in the Northwest corner of Washington State. We grow fruit, vegetables and nursery plants for local markets, and to create educational opportunities for the general public and beginning and existing farmers. We offer workshops, seminars and festivals throughout the growing season, as well as internships for farmer training. The Center helps farmers and the community network to develop a strong local food system, and provides innovative information about regional agricultural opportunities. Cloud Mountain Farm Center has extensive ongoing variety and growing systems trials for both fruit trees and vegetables. Our nursery produces and sells quality woody fruit and ornamental plants for Pacific Northwest gardens, and our fruit and produce is seasonally available at the farm stand and at the Bellingham Farmers Market. Sales of nursery plants and produce go to support the educational programs at the Center.
Fedco – Welcome to Fedco Seeds, your source for cold-hardy selections especially adapted to our demanding Northeast climate. Each year we observe hundreds of varieties, selecting only the best for inclusion in our catalogs. Through our product lines and cultural hints, we encourage sustainable growing methods. We offer a large selection of certified organic cultivars and regional heirloom varieties. We buy products from all over the world.
Grandpa’s Orchard – Fruit trees are our specialty. Welcome to Grandpa’s Orchard™. The best nursery source for large, high quality bare root fruit trees, nursery stock, and fruittree rootstock for your garden and back yard orchard. Grandpa’s Orchard offers hundreds of varieties of bareroot apple trees, sweet cherry trees, tart cherry trees, pear trees, peach trees, plum trees, prune trees, apricot trees, and other fruit tree varieties for your backyard orchard, including lots of hardy, heirloom, and disease resistant varieties.
Grow Organic – Apple, fruit and nut trees for the homestead. A wide variety of options.
Henry Leuthardt Nurseries – These particular heirloom varieties, grafted onto dwarfing rootstock have done exceptionally well. In fact, dwarfing such varieties has greatly improved the size, quality, and flavor of their fruit. Perhaps in perusing the items categorized as Rare and Choice or Old Varieties you will find something – something you will remember – the apple that used to make such unequaled pies and apple sauces – the apple that you saved for the teacher expecting that the memory of it would last until examination time. They also specialize in espaliered trees.
Miller Nurseries – one of the largest selections of fruit and nut trees, berries, grapes and much more. Choose from 65 varieties of apples, all types of berry plants, cherry, peach, nectarine, plum and pear trees, including Asian pear varieties. Surround yourself with ornamental bushes and roses, flowering and shade trees, asparagus, persimmons, currants, gooseberry plants, paw paws, garden aids and more!
One Green World – Source of heirloom apples and all varieties of other edibles. Located in Oregon.
Permaculture Nursery – Specializing in perennial edibles for permaculture.
Raintree Nursery – Raintree selects fruit varieties for flavor and ease of growing, with you the backyard gardener in mind. We have searched the world to collect the best backyard fruit varieties for you, the American gardener, as you will see as you enjoy our catalog.
Scott Farm Vermont – Scott Farm produces 70 varieties of ecologically grown apples – heirloom apples such as Roxbury Russet, Belle de Boskoop, and Cox’s Orange Pippin and unusual apples like Winter Banana and Hidden Rose – some of the finest in color, texture, and taste. Other fine fruits include quince, gooseberries, medlars, Asian pears, plums, raspberries, elderberries, table grapes, pears, blueberries, nectarines, and peaches.
St. Lawrence Nurseries – St. Lawrence Nurseries is a small, family-run business. The Nursery was started in the 1920’s by Fred Ashworth, a Northern New York farmer and plant breeder who during his lifetime made many contributions to the world of edible and ornamental plants, but especially to the relatively undeveloped realm of cold-hardy fruit and nut trees. Bill MacKentley met Fred in 1972, and, inspired by this extremely knowledgeable yet humble and generous man, worked with him as a friend and apprentice. When Fred Ashworth died in 1977, Bill decided to continue his mentor’s work, propagating new and old varieties of cold-hardy edible plants and making them available to growers in northern climates. Bill and his wife Diana purchased the land in Potsdam, New York, where Fred had carried on most of his nursery work. Over the years, by collecting and planting seed from Fred’s original nut tree selections and by continuing to propagate the many fruit cultivars tested and recommended by Fred, we have kept much of his knowledge and experience alive. To this we have added new discoveries and experience gained from living and growing trees in an uncompromising climate.
South Meadow Fruit Catalog – Southmeadow Fruit Gardens was established to make available choice and superior varieties of fruit trees and plants for the connoisseur and home gardener. After searching for sourcewood and testing for authenticity, these varieties are propagated at our nursery in Southwestern Michigan. They are available to the public through this online catalog.
Seed Savers Exchange – they have an apple grafting workshop and you get to take home a few heirloom apples if you attend. I wanted to attend this year but had a scheduling conflict. Follow them on Facebook to keep abreast of their events.
Trees of Antiquity – As always, our nursery is centered on the rich history and future discoveries that our heirloom apple trees provide through the years. We continue to discover the unique flavors, textures and lore that surround our heirloom fruit trees and look forward to extending this experience to your home.
Tower Hill Garden – Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, MA. They are have a Shades of Autumn Festival which will include taste-testing tours of the famous antique apple orchard – with 119 varieties of pre-20th Century apples. They also offer whips or scions in the spring as well.
Vintage Virginia Apples – Rural Ridge is a family-run orchard dedicated to exploring the varieties of apple that can thrive in Albemarle County,Virginia. Thomas Jefferson experimented with 18 or more varieties of apples at Monticello, only a few miles from our orchard. Rural Ridge grows the dozen or so of those cultivars that are still extant as well as hundreds of other old-fashioned varieties that offer delightful alternatives to the limited varieties currently available in grocery stores.
Wagon Wheel Orchard – Offer bench grafts of hundreds of varieties of apples and pears. Not all varieties are offered each year. Like them on Facebook to keep up with their graft sales.
One reader mentioned in the comments that The Home Orchard Society is a great resource for gardeners like us. They offer lots of information and a scion swapping in the spring.
What’s your favorite variety of apple? Any great heirloom apple resources to add to the list?
More Resources:
Heirloom Seed List
Seed Potato Sources
Alternative Allium Sources
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A Real Heirloom Tomato
Last week I went to my mom’s to visit and see how her gardens were doing. While there, she gave me a beautiful heirloom tomato.
This tomato was grown from seed that my grandpa gave us. It’s a hillbilly type tomato that he has been saving seeds from for a while. Sadly, this is the first year he hasn’t been able to grow tomatoes, so he gave the seeds to us.
I’m going to call it ‘Grandpa Meade’s Hillbilly’ tomato. You see, my grandpa is an authentic hillbilly straight from the hills of West Virginia.
You can bet that every single seed is being carefully saved. Hopefully, I’ll get enough to share with all my family members who are interested in growing them. If I get enough, I’m more than happy to share if any of you are interested.
Did you grow any new heirloom tomatoes this year? What’s your favorite heirloom beefsteak tomato?
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Yard Stick, Walking Stick, Squash?
Early this summer I planted seeds for ‘Trombetto’ squash from Renee’s Garden over at my mom’s.
The flavor is supposed to be like that of an artichoke. We had one for breakfast yesterday morning. Not sure if artichoke is how I would describe it, but it was good. Different than the usual zucchini.
It’s a climbing vine, much like a cucumber. The fruits hang down and are quite amazing when you see them, so much different than any other type of summer squash.
I harvested these two beauties on Thursday. My mom said she had no idea when to pick them so she left them on the vine. Growing interesting varieties of vegetables is one of the fun things about having an edible garden. Each year I try to grow a few new fun things.
What’s the strangest vegetable/fruit you’ve grown?
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Pole Beans vs. Bush Beans
This week, I’ve been reading Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space. I do a fair amount of vertical gardening here at Chiot’s Run because I like the structure that vertical features bring to the garden. They also take up less space, a very important thing when you’re short on garden space for all the things you want to grow.
On Tuesday I read that pole beans outproduce bush beans and decided to see if this was true. Luckily, I have both pole beans and bush beans growing in the garden. The pole beans are growing on a teepee in the lower garden and the bush beans are growing in a row beside the asparagus. I have about the same number of each, perhaps more bush beans than pole beans. The pole beans were planted a week or two after the bush beans.
After harvesting both types of beans, I weighed my harvest. The bush beans produced 11 ounces and the pole beans produced 1 pound 6 ounces. (pole bean harvest on right, bush bean harvest on left).
The nice thing about pole beans is that they produce continually over a longer period of time than bush beans, they will be producing until frost. The bush beans are just starting to bloom for a second time and will probably fade soon after I harvest this batch of beans
I also prefer pole beans to bush beans because they’re easier to pick. The beans are easier to spot and higher since the vines grow vertically.
I always love learning little bits of information like this. Even though I will have more garden space next year, I’ll still be trying to maximize that space in any way that I can. There’s just something about pole beans scrambling up a trellis in the garden.
Do you grow bush beans or pole beans?
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The Results Are In….
All of the ‘Copra’ onions have finally be harvested. If you remember, this year I’m experimenting to see which method of growing onions works best. I started ‘Copra’ seed back in late January. Plants of the same variety were also purchased from Johnny’s Seeds. Seeds were also sowed directly in the garden in March when I transplanted the ones from the seed starting area.
As expected, the onions grown from seed started in winter produced the biggest onions. The direct seeded onions might have been bigger had I thinned them, but I completely forgot to do so until it was too late. I’m going to save the small onions to plant next spring as sets, we’ll see how that works out. It’s amazing how they were all ready to harvest at roughly the same time.
From top to bottom:
- direct seeded in garden on March 2
- purchased plants transplanted in the garden on April 13
- started in late January & transplanted in the garden March 24
I always figured that starting onions from seed would produce the best onions. After reading about how onions are treated with so many pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals I have decided that all my onions will be grown from seed. The plants I purchased from Johnny’s Seeds were from Dixondale farms. After reading on their website that they recommend using fungicides every two weeks to control blight and fungus I decided I really wan’t comfortable using their plants in the garden. It’s worth it to me, to take the time to start mine so I can ensure that my onions aren’t sprayed with fungicides, pesticides and other chemicals.
Now that all the onions are harvested it’s time to store them. I’m keeping all of the types separate to see which of the above store best. I’m also trying a few different storage methods. Most will be stored in shallow wooden boxes. I did braid some, both because they’re very pretty and I figure the old-timers probably knew a little something about keeping onions all winter. Seems to me the air circulation around onion braids hung from the ceiling would be much better than for those stored in a basket or crate. I’ll let you know.
Now it’s time to harvest all the red ‘Zepellin’ onions that were planted back in April as well. I’ve never grown many red onions because I’ve found they don’t store quite as long as yellow onions. This variety promises to store well so we shall see. When it comes to cooking I’m not choosy about the color/type of onion, I like them all. As long as I have onions in the pantry I’m one happy camper.
Do you like red, white, or yellow onions best?
