![]() You can learn more about these trees and read the rest of the interview here.Ī version of this article was originally published in September 2014. "Since all of these fruit ripen at different times, from July through October, you also aren't inundated." So rather than having one variety that produces more than you know what to do with, it provides good amounts of each of the 40 varieties. "I've been told by people that have at their home that it provides the perfect amount and perfect variety of fruit. Of course, the obvious question that remains is what happens to all the fruit that gets harvested from these trees? As Van Aken told Lauren Salkeld at Epicurious in 2014: This means that there are thousands of stone fruit varieties in the world, but only a select few are considered commercially viable - even if they aren't the best tasting, or most nutritious ones.Īccording to listings on Van Aken's website, there are at least 20 such trees planted by Van Aken so far, and they can be found in museums, community centres, and private art collections around the US. If all goes well, the branch will be pruned back to encourage it to grow as a normal branch on the working tree. It's then taped into place, and left to sit and heal over winter. This technique involves taking a sliver off a fruit tree that includes the bud, and inserting that into an incision in the working tree.Īrtist's diagram of the grafted tree (Sam Van Aken courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Art) Once the working tree was about two years old, Van Aken used a technique called chip grafting to add more varieties on as separate branches. ![]() Working with a pool of over 250 varieties of stone fruit, Van Aken developed a timeline of when each of them blossom in relationship to each other and started grafting a few onto a working tree's root structure. Tall, Magical Trees Feast your soul on Sequoia and King Canyon’s filling forests Tranquility blanketed me as I stepped foot in the Montane forest of Sequoia National Park for the very first time. So, to preserve them, Van Aken bought the orchard, and spent the following years figuring out how to graft parts of the trees onto a single fruit tree. To lose this orchard would render many of these rare and old varieties of fruit extinct. In 2008, Van Aken learned that an orchard at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station was about to be shut down due to a lack of funding. This single orchard grew a great number of heirloom, antique, and native varieties of stone fruit, and some of these were 150 to 200 years old.
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