APPLE IDENTIFICATION

From the south toward the house showing the fruit orchard -- August 1940

We have eight apple trees of various species on our farm property, all of them old. We've done little with them. We don't apply dormant spray or fertilizer and don't even pick them much, but in the back of my mind, I think of rejuvenating them. It sparks my imagination to think that especially those at the pond might be leftover from the orchard that was south of the house in the old days. My dad never mentioned that old orchard. I only know about it because I see it in the picture here, taken in August 1940. I can see that the trees were mature in 1940, and I suppose the time came when it just wasn't feasible to continue. All of that area is now cultivated.

Cropped from the photo above

Especially since we moved to the farmhouse 20 years ago, I have wanted to identify the existing apple trees. It's a vast subject, and books weren't helpful. Then, a couple of years ago I read an article in the local newspaper about David Benscoter, the apple detective, who has discovered a number of antique apple varieties thought to be extinct on the Palouse to the north of us. These are likely trees planted by early homesteaders and then forgotten as time went on. There they sat in old abandoned orchards waiting to be discovered. And now there's interest in these old trees and in bringing them back.

So, I contacted the Apple Detective. Since his home is probably 150 miles from our farm, we agreed that rather than his visiting us, I would pick the apples, and we would later meet at a designated location. At his suggestion, I drew a rough map of the property on which I noted and numbered the apple trees. Then I picked eight or nine apples from each tree and bagged them in numbered Ziploc bags, which I refrigerated until we could meet.

A stand of apple trees -- tall and wide (tree #7)

The stand of apple trees (#7)

I picked from three trees at the pond and two in the lane. By the time I got to the lane, Mike was helping me because I could no longer reach the apples. The tree in the curve where the road meets the lane (tree #7) is huge. It's actually a grouping of trees, so it's wide but also tall. It's difficult to access and the apples were difficult to pick. I was not happy with the sampling from that tree, but it is what it is for this year. Tree #8 sits on the road at the edge of June's field. And -- Mike rode me over to the neighbor's place to pick tree #9 at my great-uncle Ben Dickson's homestead.

My favorites -- bright red and green (tree #4)

Monday (Oct. 28), Mike and I drove to the top of the Lewiston Hill to meet the Apple Detective and give him our box of apples. He was there with an AP photographer who is writing an article about him. I was aware of the camera once or twice but ignored it. The detective took all of my apples which he apparently submits to an organization someplace. He said he would have info for us by February or March.

Let me tell you -- we did not linger long at the top of the hill. It was cold and windy up there, and though we knew it was cold, we didn't factor in the possibility of wind. I took the camera, thinking I would get a picture of the valley, but it didn't happen. Back in town, I put on my winter coat when we walked Bess, the temp being 42. And just as our walk concluded, a strong wind came up in town. By bedtime, it had snowed a little. Temp this morning was 14. KW