Every fall, Deer Isle roads are scattered with apples from old trees that have steadily produced fruit for decades.
It’s likely that more deer eat them than people these days, resident René Colson guesses, but apples were once a key part of life and community on the island of Deer Isle-Stonington.
Now, she and other members of the new Deer Isle Apple Corps are on a mission to preserve aging trees before they die out, discover more about their mysterious history, teach growing skills, show people how to use the fruit and revive a local apple culture.
The island effort is fairly unique in Maine’s apple preservation world because it’s based in one community, focused on hyperlocal trees. Members also see opportunities to strengthen the local food system while learning more about island heritage, which is especially compelling in an area that’s home to many multigenerational families.
“When you live in a place like this, you get really attached to the land, and the apple trees are this phenomenal way to connect with the land and connect with the land of the past,” said Jonny Givelber, who’s helping start the project as an Americorps community tree steward at the Island Heritage Trust. “Because it’s kind of a snapshot into how people were living and what they were eating such a long time ago.”
There’s long been local interest in Deer Isle apples, according to Colson, who is the director of Healthy Island Project and helped launch the corps with the land trust. Residents have dabbled in projects and hosted visiting apple historians for years, but this is the first full-fledged effort.
When Givelber arrived several months ago, the organizations saw an opportunity and got funding from the Quimby Family Foundation. He describes the new group as “an island-wide collaboration of apple lovers.”
Apple seeds produce unique new trees, so specific types can only be reproduced by attaching cuttings to new trees, a process called grafting.
That means old trees were intentionally brought to the island – for baking, sauce, cider, storage or fresh eating – and genetic testing can reveal where they came from.
Todd Little-Siebold, an apple historian and College of the Atlantic professor involved with the apple corps, has been visiting the island for years to see old trees and search for historical clues.
Last year, he helped identify a descendent of one of the oldest apple trees in North America about 25 miles away on Verona Island – a French variety from the area’s earliest white settlers.
Starting in the mid- to late 1600s, up to a century before the English arrived, the Down East coast from Belfast to Nova Scotia was home to French settlements called habitants.
French settlers were concentrated between Verona and Stonington, according to Little-Siebold, and he’s looking for more apple clues in that area. At least two habitants existed in Deer Isle and Little Deer Isle, though it’s not clear whether residents stayed after English arrival.
Dozens of old Deer Isle trees remain a mystery, but Little-Siebold believes some could have national or statewide significance like the rare Verona find.
Others appear grown from seed and probably only exist on the island, such as Norman’s Wonder, which grows near the old ferry landing. It’s been temporarily named for a friend who helped local apple hunter Missy Mial discover it, becoming a new heirloom, Little-Siebold said.
Known apples found locally include Tolman Sweet, Baldwin, Gravenstein, Golden Russet, Yellow Transparent, King of Tompkins County, Famuese and Red Astrachan. Most come from the “golden age of American pomology,” when interest in apples exploded between the 1840s and 1920s.
“We know they were significant to the people on the island, so they should be growing on the island again,” Little-Siebold said of old trees.
History matters, but it’s of equal importance to him that people are re-learning to plant, grow and graft, reviving rural living skills and relationships with trees.
Thousands of different apples once grew in North America, hundreds of them in Hancock County.
The Deer Isle Apple Corps exemplifies the local effort it takes to save them, according to Little-Siebold, and he’d like to see similar models across the country.
“The thing about preserving our heritage…is that nobody’s going to do it for us,” he said.
Colson has felt that urgency personally – in 10 years, two old trees on her own property have died.
Saving them by grafting branches to younger trees seems to be a skill that can easily skip generations, according to Givelber, as one person’s work could feed a family for decades. That’s why he’s excited about reintroducing it.
“It’s such a shame to think that there’s all of these different varieties of apples that might disappear or might fade out of our interest over time because we’re just not paying attention to them,” he said.
The Apple Corps has held workshops this spring on pruning and grafting, which have both been met with excitement and more than two dozen participants.
Members also plan to map historical trees in a database that could help people share cuttings, and start a heritage orchard preserving island trees. A similar orchard at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in Unity has collected hundreds of Maine apples in the last decade and distributes cuttings from them.
This fall, the corps also hopes to familiarize people with uses for the fruit through a cider pressing, cooking events, tastings and a pie contest that Givelber will help judge before his service term ends.
HIP’s food pantry programs could also distribute local apples, Colson said; she’s already held tastings of different Maine apples provided by Palermo apple historian John Bunker to share the world beyond grocery store selections.
Her organization also thinks about how to preserve food access if the island ever faced upheaval in the industrial system or lost the bridge connecting residents to the mainland.
Apples are a “no-brainer” solution, she said: they taste good, they’re interesting, and they can be used and preserved in many ways.
“How are we going to feed an island? That’s the question,” she said. “And so we can’t do that yet, but that’s kind of the thing that keeps driving us to have a more local, sustainable food system.”
Alongside their practical merits, apples are compelling on a larger scale, participants said, reminding people that they’re part of a long human history.
“Apples hold so much. Just the story of the apple is just beautiful to me,” Colson said. “I think we can learn a lot from apples, too.”
