More than a hundred thoughtful descriptions (and photos) of apples are tucked away in a small website set up to manage the Out on a Limb Apple CSA (community supported agriculture).
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The descriptions are unsigned, but authorship must certainly belong to one of the CSA's farmers, apple sleuth and rescuer John Bunker.
Bunker founded Fedco Trees in the eighties and more recently started the Maine Heritage Orchard in Unity, Maine.
A CSA, or farm share, is an arrangement with a farm or farms to subscribe to a season of produce. The Out on a Limb CSA focuses on rare apples and promises five pickups per season at one of four Maine locations.
The nearest of those to me is a 2 hour drive each way, or I would subscribe. Each pickup comprises about 10 pounds of fruit.
Bunker's list of apples catalogs varieties that Out on an Limb has featured in the past.
His descriptions introduce apples that do well in Maine, regardless of origin.
The author's sure and friendly voice incorporates history with growing and tasting notes.
Some varieties have more history than others. See, for example, his short essay on Baldwin.
Bunker wrote and published Not Far from the Tree: a Brief History of the Apples and the Orchards of Palermo, Maine, 1804–2004, in 2007.
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