Heritage Apples by Susan Lundy

Author:Susan Lundy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: GARDENING / Fruit
ISBN: 978-1-927129-92-0
Publisher: Touchwood Editions
Published: 2013-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

Stung by the loss of those trees, Clay forged an idea to graft as many of Sooke’s heritage trees as possible and plant them in the Sunriver Community & Allotment Gardens. And in response to his correspondence, the District of Sooke developed a plan to create a database that would flag the locations of heritage trees should a property sell or an owner apply to undertake a major home renovation. Unlike some municipalities, Clay said, Sooke does not have a heritage tree bylaw and, although he is pleased with the steps being taken, he remains concerned that some trees could fall through the bureaucratic cracks.

Before our stop at the Sunriver Community & Allotment Gardens, we visited Woodside Farm and its 150-year-old fruit trees, including a towering Lemon Pippin, a Gravenstein, and a Esopus Spitzenburg (famous as American president Thomas Jefferson’s favourite apple). Woodside Farm contains one of the two remaining houses built in 1884 by John and Ann Muir, who obtained Captain Grant’s holdings when he returned to Britain in 1853. (Although Grant is credited with planting some of the oldest apple trees in Sooke, he is even more renowned for introducing Scotch broom, the invasive plant that now grows from Alaska to California, to the area. He said the bright yellow flowers reminded him of home.)

The apple trees at Woodside Farm are set against a peaceful backdrop of grassland and farm animals, including a gaggle of squawking fowl, and, of course, the charming old farmhouse itself. Clay showed me an old Lemon Pippin that had been split in half—likely due to a weak crotch in the tree—and fallen, but had completely re-rooted itself at both ends, each now with a mass of trunks and branches growing above it, all laden with fruit.

“Just because it’s fallen over doesn’t mean it can’t still produce apples,” Clay pointed out, adding that when he holds pruning workshops at the farm, he always directs people’s attention to this tree.

Down the road, we stopped at a property where a huge apple tree soared up and beyond the hydro pole. Clay wanted to measure its circumference because he believed it to be one of the biggest apple trees he’s ever seen. He estimated it’s 140 years old, 40 feet tall, and, as it turns out, 7 feet in diameter. Although the owner called it a Yellow Pippin, he was certain it’s a Lemon Pippin.

Our final stop was the Sunriver Community & Allotment Gardens—a project of which Sooke has every right to be proud. Located just a few kilometres off the main road, the 2.5-acre garden was created in 2010 through the Sooke Food Community Health Initiative Society with the goal of building awareness about local agriculture and food sustainability. Helpfully surrounded by deer fencing and rabbit wire, the garden’s sixty plots are available to rent for fifty dollars per season. In addition to the individual plots, there are community plots and spaces to hold workshops on pruning styles and techniques.

Following its creation, the garden underwent a second phase of development with the planting of the orchard the following spring.

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