That Wild Apple of Indiana

Yesterday I shared about some of the wildlife of Indiana.

I included this wild apple, one that made me cry, and said I would share the story about it. The story goes back to the 1960s when my parents, who knew absolutely nothing about pomology, bought a forty acre apple orchard. 

Its purpose was to put all my siblings and me through college. (And it fulfilled that purpose.)

That orchard became a family project, one we all worked on together for forty years.  My dad grafted new trees, we planted them, we pruned them, we picked them, we marketed them, we made cider from them...  With over 3,000 trees, it kept us busy. 

A family picnic with Grandma and Grandpa Honeywell when the orchard was in full bloom one spring.

As my parents, especially my father, got older, they could no longer care for the orchard and at 40 acres, 15 of which was a woods with a natural spring and creek, it was too small to be a profitable operation for a buyer. It didn't sell intact as it was.

In 2000 the orchard was closed. Ten acres were sold to one family who built a lovely home in it, the woods and natural spring were preserved, and the remaining land was parceled out and homes were built. Most of the lovely old trees were cleared away in the process.

Heartbreaking for our family, but we simply could not care for it any more. 

Leslie lives just a mile away from the old orchard property, and occasionally when I visit her, I drive past it and reminisce. Some of the old trees have been kept and it makes me smile to see them still surviving.

Fast forward to now.  

I'm a member of the Feast Sewing Circle, a group of women and men who gather together every other week to sew, share ideas, ask for input, and more on 18th century clothing.

And, of course, we chat. I was getting to know one of the women two weeks ago when she shared that she lived in Brookston. I mentioned my orchard connection to the town and she got an incredulous look on her face.

"Are you serious?" Alicia asked. "I live in a home on the old orchard land!"

She had questions for me, and I had questions for her. (One thing I really wanted to know was if the ancient shagbark hickory on the edge of the orchard was still there.)

An old aerial photo of part of the orchard with the hickory tree standing proudly on the perimeter. At the time, it was purported to be the largest shagbark hickory in Indiana, something our family was so proud of. It really was a huge tree. (And full of squirrels, as you might imagine!)

We exchanged contact information and I sent photos of the orchard in its heyday to Alicia so she could see how it had looked before it was closed and homes were built in it.

The next Feast Sewing Circle, Alicia came over and said, "I brought you something." And she handed me that apple.

I held it in my palm and the tears started. I did not even know what to say aside from thank you, and that came out as a whisper. 

"There's a really large apple tree that's been left and is near us. It had a few apples on it, and they were pretty high up but I was able to get one for you."

It has been 24 years since that tree has had any care. Its roots have been disturbed as the orchard was changed into a small neighborhood, it's not been pruned, it's simply been left to grow wild. And it is still producing. 

It's a Macintosh which is a really good cooking apple, but eating from the hand is fine, too. Which I will be doing soon. But right now it sits in my fruit bowl and I enjoy looking at it every time I walk through my kitchen.

What a gift. And I am so grateful.