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Apple
Tree Grafting Seminar - March 2
CAMPTON HILLS, IL: Learn how to grow your own antique apple trees at Garfield Farm Museum’s 36th Antique Apple Tree Grafting Seminar on Sunday, March 2 at 1:30pm. For $40, participants take home 3 grafts of heirloom varieties to plant in the spring. The class begins at 1:30 pm located 5 miles west of Geneva, Ill off ILL Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. Reservations are required by calling (630) 584-8485 or e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org.
For centuries, apple growers have grafted a small branch (scion) of their favorite variety onto rootstock. As apple trees cross pollinate, the seeds from one's favorite apple will not produce apples identical in taste and characteristics just as a child will at best only resemble a parent. The scion and rootstock will grow together and the graft will produce the very same favorite type.
Garfield Farm Museum’s Grafting Seminar gives attendees a chance to learn the basics and see the results of an afternoon's work in years to come. Deluged by current events, an afternoon on a historic farm learning centuries old methods provides both an escape and an act of faith that one's labors today will provide rewards years hence.
Apple tree expert Dan Bussey leads the seminar and will bring several different antique varieties of scions to graft to root stock. Mr. Bussey has written a 3500-page seven volume book on the thousands of varieties known to have existed in the US. His knowledge of making cider and baking with apples in various combinations comes from being a dedicated hobbyist at an incredibly professional level.
It may be a classic March day that comes in like a lion but inside the massive 119 year old 1906 dairy barn, the winds are kept at bay as Mr. Bussey moves from table to table helping participants draw their knives through the little finger sized scions and root stock.
Using laboratory parafilm instead of grafting wax to keep the graft moist, Bussey will teach what seems to be a sleight of hand of wrapping and tying a rubber band around the graft in the mere blink of the eye.
One can share with long gone generations an experience that provides a sense of stability and continuity that seem so elusive today. How few children are asked to anticipate a delayed future pleasure of a sweet apple pie or a crisp taffy apple that they will help grow over 4 to 7 years.
Joining in this act of faith that future summers will not be too dry or winters too cold for the young sapling, meeting fellow enthusiasts defeats the social isolation modern life fosters. For the experience of the day is greater than the instructed lessons as one can look across the broad fields towards the wooded hills and sense a serenity now bare oaks will soon bud out with green verdure as the cycle of another year progresses.
Mr. Bussey will bring antique apple variety scions to graft to root stock that is raised especially for grafting. He will also instruct participants on how to care for their grafts until they are planted. Mr. Bussey graciously donates his time and grafts to the farm to make this event possible.
There is a $40 donation for the class and reservations are required. Participants are asked to bring a sharp knife for cutting. Call the museum at (630) 584-8485, or email at info@garfieldfarm.org. Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. The 374-acre site is a historically intact former 1840s farm and teamster inn being restored as an 1840s working farm museum by volunteers and donors from around the country. Please email info@garfieldfarm.org or call 630 584-8485 if you have questions. Donations can be mailed to the museum at P.O.Box 403 LaFox, IL 60147 (post mark determines year of gift for tax consideration) or go online to our website www.garfieldfarm.org and click on the Donate button. |