Wilding (n.): An apple tree growing in the wild either as a native or as an escape.

Wildings are scattered about the woods and fallow fields of the property in Susquehanna Country, Pennsylvania--a testament to the orcharding that was done here in the 1800's. The trees bear small, sour and bitter fruit for foraging whitetail deer, black bears and several generations of Boumans. The fruit is fairly inedible—too much acid or tannin—but adding some of this fruit to a blend helps make lively and unique sweet or hard cider.

There is something satisfying about these wilding trees taking care of themselves long after humans have stopped intervening. Apple trees don’t grow true from seed. All five seeds in an apple are genetically distinct and will produce a tree as unique as a human being. Therefore, if an orchardist wants to replicate a desirable tree the grower needs to graft (essentially clone) that tree. Wilding trees sprout up from seed—often from the seed of cultivated trees that have been abandoned. When an apple tree seeds itself we get to see one combination of genes derived from a massive gene pool that originates in the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan and reflects many hundreds of years of human influence. Of course, most wildings don't survive. Those that do manage to fruit have a combination of genes that works for our particular soil, climate, disease and pest pressure. So, when one drinks a glass of cider or brandy made with wilding fruit, one tastes the story of a species and a place encountering each other and reaching a kind of understanding.

In our orchard our approach is to ease this encounter so that natural selection and ecology work more in our favor. Named varieties were selected for propagation by people, not by mother nature, so they need some extra help. This perspective is inspired and informed by Michael Phillips’ work on holistic orcharding which focuses on developing the soil food web, increasing beneficial microbe and insect populations, and limited use of organic, allopathic remedies. 

This approach isn’t exactly new. The orchards of the 1800’s frequently doubled as pastures. The soil was full of life and the big root systems of the standard-sized trees increased the likelihood that tree health would keep diseases in check allowing the farmer to harvest crop of apples good enough for cider—which was the central purpose of the apple in those days. In fact, one can still see this system at work in Normandy, France. There, the cows that produce the milk used for camembert cheese graze under the trees that grow the fruit for French cider and calvados.

We hope to join and support the movement in this country toward a greater appreciation for local, sustainable food grown and prepared in a way that links us to the landscape and to the ethos behind those first apple orchards planted in North America.

-Nathaniel Bouman, Manager of Wilding Orchards