Apples and apple orchards have a long history here going
back to the earliest Dutch settlement era. The Van Rensselaers urged their tenant farmers
to plant orchards of apples, pears, and other fruits. Think about that for a
minute. In the 1600s, to European eyes, the land here in what is now Bethlehem
was very much wilderness. To plant an apple seed in anticipation of the tree
growing and bearing fruit, something that could take 10 years, was an act of
faith in the future of the settlement.
In 1682, Albert Bratt, the Norwegian for whom the Norman’s
Kill is named, subleased his orchard along the creek to his future son-in-law
Teunis Cornelissen Slingerland. The rent was 150 “schepels” a year. If this was
the usual ten percent, then that orchard was producing 1500 “schepels” of
apples a year. That’s about 1100 bushels in modern terms, and likely over 250
mature trees.
65+ years later, during his stay in the Albany area in June
1749, Peter Kalm noted that each farm had a large orchard. Some of the apples
were “very large and palatable” and were “sent to New York, and other places as
a rarity.” He also wrote “they make excellent cider, in autumn, in the country
round Albany.”
An important word about that cider. We are not talking about
the delicious cider we pick up at the store today. We are talking about hard,
that is alcoholic, cider. Also delicious, but not the benign cider of today. Orchards
in those early days were dedicated to cider apples and the reason is
interesting. Apple trees grown from seed do not produce the kind of apple the
seed came from. For example, if you plant the seeds from a Golden Delicious
apple, watch the tree grow and harvest its fruit, the resulting apple is not a Golden Delicious. It is likely to be sour and look nothing like its parent
apple. Sour, inedible apples however, are excellent for pressing into cider. That
cider can then be easily fermented back on the farmstead into a drink that,
especially on the frontier, is more easily obtained than beer or wine, or even
fresh water.
While seedlings and grafted trees did come from Europe early on,
apple seeds were also planted in abundance. You might remember the tale of
Johnny Appleseed?
To get a true Golden Delicious, one needs to purchase a
grafted tree. And this is interesting too. Apples, in the wild genetic mixing
of their seeds, sometimes produce very yummy varieties. Every Golden Delicious
goes back to a single apple tree, one found in an orchard on the Mullin’s
family farm in West Virginia in 1904. Anderson Mullins sold the tree and
propagation rights to Stark Brothers Nursery who first marketed it in 1914. Another
example is the Granny Smith. That apple literally goes back to a single tree
discovered by Maria Ann Smith in Australia in 1868. And yes, Maria did become a
Granny.
The Temperance movement of the late 1800s (which eventually
led to Prohibition in 1919) caused farmers and orchardists to wonder what they
were going to do with all their apples if they couldn’t make hard cider from
them. The answer was to market them for their healthy wholesomeness with the
classic “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This in turn led to something
of an apple gold rush where farmers scoured their orchards for the tree that
distinguished itself with extra special fruit. Shoots of that special tree
could then be grafted onto root stock and the saplings marketed and sold.
Apples, and other orchard produce, continued to be a cash
crop for Bethlehem farmers well into the 1900s. For example, in the 1940s,
Sunnybrook Farm, run by Charles and Virginia Waldenmaier, included a 500-tree
orchard with Alexander, Wolf River, Greening, Delicious and Macintosh apple
trees. While Bethlehem does not currently boast a large commercial orchard,
remnant trees from the old orchards can be found. Recently while walking in the
woods near my home, I noticed large apples on the ground, and looking up saw
the gnarled old tree they came from. Could this tree have been part of the
orchards of the Van Allen family farm that was here before my housing
subdivision? You bet!
This article was inspired in three ways. First and foremost,
by the iconic Indian Ladder Farms. Second by the book Botany of Desire A
Plant’s Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan. Pollan’s article on apples
and the real Johnny Appleseed is fascinating. And finally, the collection of
the Bethlehem Historical Association has several brass stencils that illustrate the wonderful variety of fruit produced by Bethlehem
farmers. Romantic sounding names like Blue Gage, Green Gage, Baldwin, Magnum
Bonum, Cranberry Pippin, Louie Honne, Sutton Beauty, and Hubbardston were
stenciled onto boxes and barrels in preparation for shipment to market.
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While in my mind Indian Ladder Farm is synonymous with
apples, the only pictures I have are set among the pumpkins. Here is my
daughter Emma circa 1998.
