The Heirloom Orchardist

Dr. Johnson and Apple Dumplings

“If possible, have a good orchard,” wrote Dr. Samuel Johnson to his friend (and eventual biographer) James Bowell “I know a clergyman of small income who brought up a family very reputably, which he chiefly fed on apple dumplings!”

The Heirloom Orchardist would have found humor in that statement.  At least I hope so.  I have to believe that Dr. Johnson meant it to be heard with a chuckle.  As they are today, apples were grown for several reasons in eighteenth century England.  They were eaten out of hand, they were fed to livestock, they were brought to market.  And of course, they made into all sorts of apple treats...including dumplings.

But how did The Heirloom Orchardist make an apple dumpling?  A February 4, 1888 issue of Good Houskeeping Magazine gets us started with this:

"Undoubtedly, the dumplings of our ancestors were composed largely of suet and though suited to the gross customs of those times would not be in favor to-day. Yet instead of throwing aside the dish on this account, we may make them more in accord with modern ideas."

Suet? Really?  "Gross customs," indeed.  Let's get to those "modern ideas" of 1888.  Good Housekeeping continues:

"Our dumplings may be steamed, boiled or baked. Formerly each one was tied in a well-floured cloth and boiled, but steamers make the preparation easier for us. The dumplings may be put side by side on a plate and that be set in the steamer, or they may be put separately in cups. If they are to be baked, it is desirable to put them quite close together in a pan, and put a bit of butter on top of each one and sprinkle a little sugar over all. This makes a crisp brown crust."

A bit of butter, a sprinkle of sugar, and a crisp brown crust...now we're talkin'.  Let's end with Lydia Maria Gurney's recipe, as provided in her 1913 book entitled "Things Mother Used to Make":

Baked Apple Dumplings

"Take rich pie crust, roll thin as for pie and cut into rounds as large as a tea plate. Pare and slice fine, one small apple for each dumpling. Lay the apple on the crust, sprinkle on a tiny bit of sugar and nutmeg, turn edges of crust over the apple and press together. Bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes. Serve hot with cold sauce."

Graft your wild apple trees. Why not?!

"Here on this rugged and woody hillside, has grown an apple tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former orchard, but a natural growth, like the pines and oaks." - Henry D. Thoreau

Thoreau called them "wild apples."  Today they're more apt to be"crab apples," or "volunteers."  Whatever they are, I'm quite excited about this suggestion I found in the December 1888 issue of The Orchard and Garden Magazine:

"A few weeks since while walking over a large hillside farm, we noticed, growing along fences here and there in the open fields, fine, thrifty apple trees.  They were seedlings, coming up from a stray seed dropped by birds or small animals, and the fruit, so far as noticed, was worthless.  There were not less than a score of these trees."

"It would cost less than a dollar each to graft them into first-class fruit and in three year's time they would repay it.  Why not do it?  There are thousands of such trees all over the country which should be similarly treated."

Well, what say you?  Why not do it?

Here's what The Heirloom Orchardist says:  Do it.  Plan for it now, order your scions, and do some grafting early next year.  If you've got a scrubby volunteer crab apple growing in any sunny spot on your land, you've got a great opportunity to create an Heirloom Apple tree.

Consider the following:

1. Your crabapple tree has never been considered anything special.  2. You've always wanted to give grafting a try.  3. If the grafts don't take, you've expended limited time and effort.  4.If the grafts do take, you've created a fantastic asset that'll last for years.

Did someone say "lemons to lemonade" or "windfalls to cider"?  This suggestion of 1888 really zeros-in on what The Heirloom Orchardist is all about.  That is, reading up on the way our agrarian ancestors worked and thought, learning from it, and adapting it to this day-and-age.  There's a lot we can learn.

Frugal 'n' Handy Farm Devices

I was recently inspired by the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op to search through my personal library of old books and find some old frugality tips for the Heirloom Orchardist.  Strangely, although the books are full of ideas that you and I would consider frugal, they weren't referenced that way.  These how-to tips were presented more as tips for practical living, than frugal living.

I'm sure if I looked further, I'd find words preaching the virtues of a "thrifty, god-fearing, frugal life."  Something like that. But to the Heirloom Orchardist, perhaps the phrase "frugal living" sounded a bit silly.  Farm life is frugal life, isn't it?  Certainly, to the 18th and 19th century farmer it was.  You were either frugal or you were wasteful.  There was no in-between.

My books are full of ideas on how to properly manage the farm.  That includes frugality. I found numerous inquiries on how to re-use various cast-offs that accumulated around the homestead.  Does scrap leather make a good manure?  How can one scatter spoiled snuff as an insecticide?  To what useful purpose may I apply burnt bones?  And what can I do with all those darn barrels that keep piling up?

That one's easy.  My book of Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them (by Rolfe Cobleigh, 1912) flatly states:  "Barrels, barrel hoops and barrel staves may be worked into many useful things upon a farm."

Rolfe gives plenty of ideas.  There's the Chicken Coop, the Barrel Hoop Trellis, or (my favorite) the Weeding Stool. It uses barrel staves to keep the legs of an old stool from sinking into the earth under the weight of an overbearing Heirloom Orchardist.

But I can top all of those.  Here's something I assembled from cast-offs just a few weeks ago. I found some old lumber in my garage, and grabbed an old cedar window shutter from the neighbor's trash (I know that's cliche'. But I really did.)

  Then I took the wheels and pull-handle off the kids' old red wagon,

and made this:

Hey Rolfe!  Add that to your list of Handy Farm Devices!