25 Years in the Making

 25 Years in the Making

About 25 years ago, I read an article in the Better Homes & Gardens magazine about a man whose mission it was to preserve heirloom apples for their history and taste.  I carefully tore that article from the magazine and placed it in my wish file for for the day when I would have enough land to plant my own heirloom apple orchard.  I dreamed I would call this gentleman for advice and follow his legacy.

Many years passed until I finally had the land and desire to to put down roots to realize the fruit from this labor.  I had studied his recommendations on the best combination of apples for cider.  As planned, I hunted down the man from the Better Homes & Gardens article and found a phone number to call.  I was one year too late, as the gentleman had passed away.  His family advised me that they had sold all his root stock to a new business that would be carrying on his legacy called "Trees of Antiquity."

The rest is history.  I found 9 varieties of heirloom apples from Trees of Antiquities a decade ago that just yielded their first cider pressing.