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From FARM to HOME
OUR STORY
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Restoration Orchard is located in New England, in the Johnny Appleseed region of Central Massachusetts. We purchased this former pick your own orchard, one of 5 left in town from over 50 orchards in the 1940s, and over 90 in the 1890s. The orchard was once part of a larger, 85-acre orchard dating back to the 1860s, which was wiped out in the hurricane of 1938. It was replanted in the 1970s.
​We knew nothing about orchards. The site had been abandoned for over 9 years and had become overgrown with a thorny invasive vine, literally entombing many of the 12’-15’ tall apple trees, choking them from sunlight, preventing any fruit from growing. We were told most of the trees would have died within 2-3 years.
We heard how resilient apple trees were and decided to take a risk. We bought the orchard and started a 3-year process of removing the thorny vines, some up to 2.5” diameter, with two crews. Once the trees started to get sunlight again, they began to produce more and more leaves each year, and then apples started to appear. We were able to save 120 trees and to our surprise, we found 15 varieties of apples, even some heirloom varieties like Baldwin and Northern Spy!
WE EXPANDED
Since then, we learned about the new trellis orchard planting system now being promoted by University agriculture departments, and planted an additional 2,100 apple trees. This relatively new, sustainable planting system uses less land, provides lower costs and results in higher yields. In addition, it produces a higher percentage of Grade A apples. The orchard now consists of 20 varieties with more plantings in process.
SOME HISTORY
At 400 feet above sea level, and with the ideal combination of hot summer days and cool fall nights, New England is the optimal location for growing the majority of apple varieties available today. In fact, this is where apple orchards were first planted in this country. It was one of the most valuable crops as it was used for juice, baking, cider and canning. Many European varieties were brought over and planted here, and Colonists created hundreds of new varieties by grafting trees. When researching older varieties to plant, we were amazed to learn that during the Colonial period there were 10,000 to 14,000 different apple varieties in New England!
