What’s Old Is New Again
Loughborough Heritage Orchard
http://www.heritage-orchard.com
This fruit might not be forbidden, but you won’t find these flavours in your local grocery shop.
Stella and Marc Hiemstra run Loughborough Heritage Orchard, a beautiful farm nestled into the south shore of Loughborough Lake in Frontenac South.
“Our focus is on maintaining heritage apple varieties, on a heritage property, in heritage ways,” explains Stella. The centrepiece of that heritage approach is the cultivation of “old standard” apple trees which are now 60-70 years old. The orchard itself dates back to the 1940s but was lovingly restored by Stella and Marc when they moved to the farm in 2014.
The fruit trees were left dormant over the years until blossoms stopped growing and any thought of fruit was a distant memory. Coaxing an orchard back to life is tricky work; there is a delicate set of circumstances that need to be met to encourage growth; everything from ensuring tree branches aren’t crossing to allowing enough airflow around them.
The orchard is spaced out now to ensure broad, grassy spaces between the rows of apple trees. This is less demanding on the soil, making it easier to grow apples with organic methods, allowing space for the grazing animals that are critical to the orchard’s success.
“The flavours of our apples are remarkable. It was like nothing we ever tasted. [We want] to offer varieties you can’t taste anymore, to be able to provide that to our local community and beyond.”
Stella Hiemstra, Loughborough Heritage Orchard
It’s why Stella and Marc also raise horses, pigs, and chickens on Loughborough.
Their horses are part of the grazing rotation in the orchard, and their pigs clean up fallen fruit that could spread apple pests.
These aren’t ordinary pigs, either. Keeping in line with the theme of Loughborough, the Hiemstra’s raise KuneKune pigs, a heritage breed from New Zealand. Charmingly small and round, not only are these pigs unbearably cute, they’re essential to the health of the orchard. So much so that Stella and Marc won’t sell them as pork, even though, according to Stella, they are apparently very tasty.
“One of the challenges with an organic orchard is that if little fruitlets fall to the ground and happen to have a bug larva in them, the larva will eat its way out, and go into the ground to pupate,” explains Stella. “It’s physically impossible to pick them all up.” If the apples are left on the ground, the pest cycle could continue next year. Instead, while the pigs graze around the orchard, they will devour fallen fruit whole. Problem solved!
“We really want this apple orchard to be spectacular,” says Stella. “The flavours of our apples are remarkable. It was like nothing we ever tasted. [We want] to offer varieties you can’t taste anymore, to be able to provide that to our local community and beyond.”
Since restoring the original orchard, they’ve planted more young heritage variety apple trees, as well as pears, plums, and cherries. They make apple products right on the farm, including cider, jams, apple syrup, and apple cider vinegar. They also have a small sugar bush, where they produce maple syrup and maple butter, all available at the farm store when in season.
