North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[paul simon <paul.simon@tcs.wap.org>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] I heard

Gordon wrote;

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> While still in bed listening to the
> radio this morning: I heard mention of ? acres of antique varity of
> apples being planted down south some civil war site or something.
> They supposedly rare and antique apples were purchased in Michigan. I
> can think of only 2 places that they might have come from. Anyone
> have a definite answer?

 

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Gordon;

This note was in the Washington Post  yesterday.  Antietam is south of Hagerstown, MD, (not in the South in my viewpoint). I was half thinking of throwing a shovel and wheelborrow in the back of my PU and driving the 70 miles over, but then have too many unfinished jobs hanging on coathooks here.

Paul S.

Apples Ahead for Antietam


The landmarks at Antietam National Battlefield already include one agricultural feature, the cornfield. Soon there will be another: the apple orchard.

Rangers and volunteers plan to plant 350 apple trees this fall to help restore the Piper farm, one of the homesteads on the property, to the way it looked on the eve of the Civil War's bloodiest one-day battle.

A nursery in Michigan is supplying eight apple varieties -- Baldwin, English Russet, Fornwalder, Gilpin, Jefferis, Maidenblush, McLellan and Northern Spy -- for the project, said Joe Calzarette, Antietam's natural resources manager.

He said the National Park Service needs volunteers to help plant and tend the trees on seven acres of the 3,255-acre park.

The original, 17-acre Piper orchard was occupied by Confederate troops Sept. 17, 1862, when Union and Confederate forces clashed along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg in a battle that left more than 23,000 dead, wounded or missing.