We started our orchard in the spring of 2017 with six Cox Orange Pippin trees, one Northern Spy, and two Jonagolds.

The following spring we added a few Cortlands, Harralsons and Honeycrisps, but we also planted a handful of Calville Blanc, Esopus Sptzenburg, and Golden Russet.

In the three planting seasons since, we’ve planted primarily cider apples – apples too tart to eat off the tree but fermentable into delicious, complex hard cider. In contrast to our somewhat haphazard and idiosyncratic north orchard, we have planted these cider apple trees in single variety rows in our south orchard. Trees include Kingston Black, Redfield, Belle de Boskoop, Wickson Crab, Golden Russet, Reine de Pommes, Arkansas Black, Dabinette, and Ashmead’s Kernel.

We are excited to plant Bulmer’s Norman, Hewe’s Virgina Crab, and Somerset Redstreak this spring.

While we have had a few apples here and there each year, we anticipate our first real crops in about three to five years.

I wrote about planting apple trees during a pandemic for Front Porch Republic.

We’ve also planted a small selection of pears and stone fruit trees — sweet cherries, sour cherries, and plums — as well as a few rows or raspberries. Black raspberries, mulberries, and grapes grow wild along the edges of our woods.

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