In ddition to the many varieties available on the trees at our local orchards, some heirloom varieties with historic connections are popping up this week.
At Doe Orchards, Wickson Crab, Ashmead’s Kernel, Roxbury Russet, and Esopus Spitzenburg, a favorite of Thomas Jefferson’s, are available at the stand. A Dutch settler named Spitzenburg discovered the apple in the late 1700s near the settlement of Esopus on the Hudson River. Records show Jefferson planted Esopus Spitzenburg trees in his Monticello orchard, where they continue to produce apples to this day.
Roxbury Russet, also available at Westward Orchards, is considered the oldest American heirloom apple. The first Roxbury Russet tree was discovered in 1635 in Roxbury, which was then a small town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is thought to have grown from a seedling brought here by the colonists.
Northern Spy, available for picking and in the store at Carlson Orchards, originated from a farm in East Bloomfield, New York, in the early 1800s. While no one knows for sure where the name came from, there is speculation that it was named after a dime-store novel titled “The Northern Spy,” about a man who set up safe houses to help runaway slaves escape to Canada. The book was in circulation during the time the tree would have been bearing its first fruit.
www.carlsonorchards.com
Pick-your-own McIntosh, Cortland, Gala, Macoun, Mutsu, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy, Ida Red, Jonagold, Cameo, and Empire apples (check Facebook daily for other varieties). Available in the store are McIntosh, Cortland, Empire, Gala, Gravenstein, Northern Spy, and Honeycrisp apples, along with locally grown winter squash, pumpkins, and chrysanthemums.
Store is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; pick-your-own is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
www.doeorchards.com
Pick-your-own Honeycrisp, Macoun, Mutsu, Pink Lady, McIntosh, Golden Supreme, Cortland, Ruby Mac, Fuji, Jonagold, and Empire apples. At the stand, heirloom apple varieties Wickson Crab, Esopus Spitzenburg, Ashmead’s Kernel, and Roxbury Russet, along with most of the varieties on the trees. Also at the stand are pumpkins, gourds, cider, and apple firewood.
Stand and pick-your-own hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
www.goodspiritsfarm.com
At the self-service farmstand this week: Organically grown raspberries, blackberries, zucchini, pattypan and crookneck squash, kale, collards, heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, green beans, and butternut and honeynut squash. Also available at the stand are the farm’s own honey, berry jams (including raspberry, peach, blueberry, and blackberry), dahlia and zinnia bouquets, lavender hand cream, and eggs (in the refrigerator in the adjacent shed) from Goose and Hen in Harvard and Chip-In Farm in Bedford.
Stand is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
www.oldfrogpondfarm.com
Pick-your-own raspberries. At the self-service farmstand on the porch: certified organic fruit and vegetables, including bagged apples, fresh-pressed unpasteurized apple cider, cherry tomatoes, leeks, garlic, flowers, and their own raspberry, raspberry rhubarb, and Shiro plum jams, herbal teas, and nettle salt. They are also selling mugs and small bowls made by East Fork, a pottery company in Asheville, N.C., founded by Alex Matisse, who grew up on the farm. All proceeds from the sale of pottery will go to help Asheville recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
The farmstand and pick-your-own raspberries will be open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and will close for the season after that.
www.westwardorchards.com
Pick-your-own McIntosh, Red Delicious, and Golden Delicious apples. Pick-your-own pumpkins with wagon rides to the pumpkin patch on weekends. Available in the store: Westward’s McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Honeycrisp, Gala, Ginger Gold, Golden Delicious, Jonaprince, Baldwin, Red Jonathan, and Roxbury Russet apples; mixed varieties of pears, mixed plums, quince, regular, heirloom, and cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, carrots, eggplant, winter squash, peppers, beets, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, shallots, and mixed herbs. Pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks are also available.
Store is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; pick-your-own apples from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; pick-your-own pumpkins on weekends only, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
—Compiled by Joan Eliyesil