Foggy Ridge Cider

07/13/2026

https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/deeply-rooted

I first learned about family apples while researching my book, Wild, Tamed, Lost, Revived: The Surprising Story of Apples in the South, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2023. Lee Calhoun wrote about apples that are handed down within families or distributed within a small community, ones that never entered the nursery trade. Family apples have deep cultural connections—there are reasons people grafted and passed along a particular apple. Perhaps the apple held a memory of a loved family member, like Granny Neighbors named for Alabama nursery owner Joyce Neighbors. Or, like the Mary Reid apple, the fruit ripened during to***co harvest and provided sustenance for the community doing the hard work of bringing in a to***co crop in late summer and early fall.

Two apples from Bath County, Virginia, kept calling to me: Aunt Cora's Yard Apple and Aunt Cora's Field Apple carry the name and legacy of Cora Gilmore who was born enslaved in that Allegheny mountain community, experienced Emancipation, purchased land from her enslavers, and worked as a midwife to Black and white families into the twentieth century. This recent story in the Oxford American excavates a bit of southern history through the story of Gilmore's apples and the landscape that spawned them.

Every time I dip into any apple's past I learn—or relearn—"it's complicated." The South is complicated. Agriculture is nuanced; people lead complex, multi-facted lives. Learning is my highest value and I'm still hard at work in the orchard and the archives.

A couple of years ago Will Hodges from Troddenvale Cider and I gathered scions from an old tree on Gilmore's home place. I grafted a few trees and now grow what might be one of Gilmore's namesake apples. DNA testing revealed one parent is the Horse apple, one of the most widely grown apple varieties in the South. Makes sense. Lee Calhoun said, "You don't often see the Horse apple in a southern nursery catalog because everybody in the South already had a Horse apple in their back yard." Virginia Cider

Virginia cider maker Diane Flynt chronicles the history of two family apple varieties named for Bath County midwife Cora Gilmore.

07/13/2026

S*x or food? Hummingbirds can’t decide this morning—they all drink deeply, then the males in the cohort perform a frenetic mating dance disrupting breakfast, then all back to the feeder. Watching the activity beats reading the Times and the Post❤️🍎

06/28/2026

On holiday in the Cotswolds, I was fortunate to spend a few hours at Bruern Farm with Leslie Jowett Astor, founder of Fifield Road Apothecary, on a hedgerow foraging walk. She opened my eyes to the abundant food and medicine beside every field. We tasted Pineapple W**d in a perfect posset and a Hogweed Tart (not the Giant Hogweed) worthy of a Michelin star lunch. Meadowsweet, Ribwort Plantain, Nettle, Elderflower…Leslie describes plants as “wise, sentient beings that have much to teach us.”

I know my apples as individuals so I recognize the truth in her urging to “know plants’ personalities and characteristics…this will enrich your life.” And when she described dandelions as “generous plants that cheerfully resist oppression” I saw a lesson I need to heed.

We met Leslie’s husband, Henry, a grain grower and miller who shared a bag of his field blend wheat. Artisan bakers value his approach to growing carefully selected varieties and harvesting ripe grains. Sounds like an orchard I know!

Spending a day learning from people who notice and value the world around us. Walking by hedgerows full of food and healing. Heading home filled with new perspectives, enriched by this encounter…perfect vacation day!
Henry at Bruern Farms Fifield Road Apothecary The Cotswolds, Official Tourism Organisation for the Cotswolds Leslie Astor Unique Homestays

06/11/2026

A visit with Peggy Cornett at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants landed me in the center of the groundbreaking work on native plants Monticello that this superb gardener has spearheaded for decades. Her work shows in the nursery, and her latest book, Thomas Jefferson’s Flowers, has her scholarship on full display. I went home with a few copies…and of course even more plants! Gardeners, don’t miss this one🌺🌸🌷 University of Virginia Press

05/31/2026

Last week on a perfect spring day, Foggy Ridge hosted the SWVA Orchard Tour sponsored by VATech Extension. Commercial growers from Cana, Independence, and Fancy Gap joined a few new orchardists anxious to learn how to nurture fruit trees into production. VATech researchers deepened our knowledge of pests and diseases. We heard a detailed analysis of the two April weather events that destroyed so much of the fruit crop across VA. We shared stories, ate lunch, and walked around our oldest orchard with “the doctors” from Tech. While it’s nice to have a plant pathologist say “this orchard is well maintained and free of disease” I wish we could have admired a full crop of apples. Sadly, not this year. Even with no fruit orchardists have to take care of trees and make sure next year’s crop has a chance. Fruit trees are a long game…treasure local apples you find this fall🍎🍎

05/25/2026

After many dry weeks and an extended burning ban, here’s how to safely burn a big pile of apple prunings…wet ground from a few rainy days, mist and rain all day, and more rain to come. Plus a tractor on standby. Thanks to our most helpful neighbor, our three burn piles are put to bed for the year. Even in a season with scant fruit, orchard maintenance continues.

05/14/2026

Nothing like it…spring ephemerals giving it their all in their brief beautiful life. Yellow Lady Slippers on a woods walk. Tree peonies starting off the late spring garden. A few, far too few, cider apples. And most welcome for all farmers, orchardists, and gardeners…rain!

04/18/2026

Good morning old apple tree, my leafy screen for spring sunrises. Today two pages of birdsong from the Merlin app…the Phoebe that attempts to build her muddy mossy nest over the back door, a Tufted Titmouse, always Mourning Dove calls, many more birds plus the neighbor’s rooster. I’ll put up the hummingbird feeder today and check out the late bloomers in the orchard. Perfect day. .bird.id

04/08/2026

I was happy to spend a warm spring day in Shepherdstown, WV, speaking to a conference of farmers and food producers about the South and its apples. The partnered with my buddies at the to create two days of talks and workshops at Shepherd University’s stunning Tabler Farm. Of course I sneaked in a bike ride on the C&O Canal path and a meal at .bea.shepherdstown. Teaching a workshop with Mary Godinez from Countryside Farm & Nursery was icing on the cake. I like this “big little town” on the Potomac, the Thomas Shepherd Inn, the Main Street with Pride flags in every window…and will be back!

03/29/2026

Big energy in little Mt Airy, NC, at yesterday’s No Kings March. A crowded corner and shared protest against a long list of assaults against democracy in our country brought this group of old and young together on a blustery morning. Peaceful. Passionate. Committed to action beyond a single protest. All here in Mayberry.