(Rescheduled from Sunday, January 19th, due to weather conditions.) I

f you were registered or on the waitlist for the January 19th date, your place on those lists has been held. Cancellations may be sent by email to scovilleadultprograms@biblio.org.

Join apple grower Ron Bixby for a talk on orchard restoration and cultivating organic heirloom apples for cider pressing.

A Salisbury READS North Woods event presented in partnership with the Salisbury Association Land Trust

40 years ago, Ron Bixby acquired an old orchard, overgrown with gnarly little apples. Through years of careful clearing, pruning, replanting, and grafting, he restored the orchard, which is now thriving and producing organic heirloom fruit including Northern Spy, Golden Russet, and Baldwin apples.

Harking back to old traditions, Bixby’s apples are hand-picked in select batches to press fresh and hard ciders that express the distinct flavors of different varietals. Hear his story, packed with knowledge about apple cultivation in our region. Afterwards, please stay to enjoy a tasting of hard ciders from Little Apple Cidery.

Farmer, orchardist, cider maker, and farm cidery operator, Ron Bixby is the owner of Little Apple Farm and Cidery in Hillsdale, NY.  In 1980, he bought the old Rudolph Orchard and restored it, adding American heritage fruit and cider apple varieties. In 2016, the cidery opened, followed by the Orchard Bar in 2020. Ron loves growing fruit trees and talking to them. Outside of work, he’s a climber (mountaineer, rock, ice), hiker, bicyclist, and president of the Copake Hillsdale Farmers Market.

What’s the connection to North Woods? Central to Daniel Mason's novel is the love, care, cultivation, and vulnerability of trees, especially apple trees. Mason's 300-year saga of a Berkshire house and its occupants chronicles the strange, fortuitous origins and the shifting fortunes of an apple orchard with roots in colonial times. This fictional orchard's extraordinary fruit -- named Osgood's Wonder -- has uncanny connections with an apple variety that may have its origins in Salisbury. The Northern Spy, one of many heirloom varieties cultivated by Ron Bixby, has a fascinating history of its own, which we will divulge at this presentation on heirloom apple growing.

Registration is required. Please use the link below.

For more information about Salisbury READS North Woods, please visit this program page.