Meanwhile, on a Maine island

[wtg]

historians discover one of the oldest living apple trees in North America

https://www.mainepublic.org/maine/2025-06-02/on-verona-island-historians-discover-one-of-the-oldest-living-apple-trees-in-north-america?utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4c06e5d78644b3aab4472

[Jodi]

That’s cool.

[wtg]

I wonder what the apples taste like. I've had some heirloom varieties that didn't look great (like the ones in the photo) but that tasted wonderful.

[Bernard]

The apples look like ones from a tree we had when I was a child. They weren't great for eating raw, but made decent pies and sauce.

Maine. Such an interesting coastline! As a crow flies, from the southern end, near the NH border, up to Eastport is something like 230 miles. But if you followed every bay, cove, and inlet along the coast the path would be over 3500 miles long!

[CHAS]

My favorite apples, Johnathan, have vanished. Not a fan of the current varieties. Buy Gala sometimes.

[Daniel.]

I kept thinking we have an apple tree. We have an orange tree. The birds love it but the fruit is inedible. I'm not a bird person. I hope the next owner is because it is nice having a citrus tree on your lot.

[Big_Al]

I've read of other people seeking out heirloom varieties of apples. One gentleman in West Virginia has located nearly one hundred by exploring old, abandoned farmstead in the state.

I was glad to read that they have successfully grafted specimens of that apple. Given the gnarly appearance of that tree, it would be uncertain if it would survive for much more time. The article did seem to suggest that the variety is not extinct in France.

We had an apple tree on the family farm that sprouted as a volunteer from a place we piled vegetable scrapes. It was a yellow apple and made some of the best-tasting applesauce. My father tried to propagate it by grafting, but with now success. Eventually, that tree died so its apples are lost, except in memory.

Big Al