The Heirloom Apples of Scott Farm
Zeke Goodband tooks us around Scott Farm yesterday, taking apples off the tree and cutting into them with his pocket knife to give us a sense of their unique flavors.
The orchards at Scott Farm hold a collection of over 70 heirloom apple varieties Zeke collected from all over New England, Great Britian, France, Italy, Russia, and beyond.
Each variety is described in mouth-watering terms and each have fascinating histories. D'Arcy Spice apples taste like nutmeg. They were harvested in England on Guy Fawkes Day (November 5), then put in cloth bags and hung from the branches of the tree for storage through the winter. Ananas Reinette taste like pineapples, while Hudson's Golden Gems tastes like pears (Zeke says Hudson's Golden Gems taste "more like a pear than most pears ever do").
Zeke describes how each day he walks up into the orchard to taste each variety and see which have hit their peak ripeness. As apple ripen they convert their starches to sugars. In a matter of hours or days a variety can go from being underripe to perfectly ripe. Each day this orchard walk allows Zeke to carefully select which varieties he will send up to us.
Once Zeke has selected the ripest varieties, the harvest crew goes in to pick the tree. Rather than gather all the apples off the tree at once, the apples at the top and on the south side of the tree ripen first so are picked first. Days or weeks later the crew will go back for the remaining apples.
The farm is conserved through the Landmark Trust USA, an organization that rescues threatened historic properties and returns them to life. When the Trust bought the orchard in 1995 the orchard only contained McIntosh and the buildings and grounds were in disrepair. Patiently grafting variety after variety, year after year, the orchard has evolved into the diverse and unique apple collection that we enjoy today.
The Landmark Trust also restored the house just down the road from the farm - the house where Rudyard Kipling lived and where he wrote The Jungle Book (you can even stay the night in Kipling's house - the Trust rents out the property for a weekend or more!).
It’s a haul to get down to Dummerston (near Brattleboro) from Burlington, but a visit to Scott Farm is definitely a treat if you’re ever in the area. They have a farm stand on the property and an annual Apple Tasting Day (scheduled for October 7 this year). You can also “visit” through film – Scott Farm is featured in the movie The Cider House Rules – they filmed the movie on location.
We sell Scott Farm's apples through the fall. With over 70 varieties that come into season between August and October, it's a challenge to keep track of all the apples. We've created a new handy online tool to help you learn about each variety and find out about what their best uses are (from pies to applesauce to fresh eating to cider!)