The Wild Orchard

Here's Ella, and the base of one of our apple trees... with main tree and shoots , too. quite a mess

Same tree as the one Ella was standing under

again, you see the tangled mess of 40 years of no care...

This tree somehow got some care over the years

But it has only a couple of live branches... is it too late to save? Fantastic winesap apples..

Our new property has a wild orchard surrounding the house and up by the road... there are probably 20 apple trees, a couple of pears, and wild plums everywhere ... perhaps also a couple of apricots. There are also some sour pin cherries, as well as gooseberries. Most of the trees, which we figure are 100 years old, need serious work -- if they can be saved at all. We plan to work with some local orchardists (including the famed Gordon Tooley) to restore the orchard. At the very least, we'll let it run wild for the bears.