Among the things that farmer John Kilcherman collects are old glass soda bottles and heirloom apple varieties. He has 10,000 of the former—a collection which he says is bigger than the one officially honored by Guinness; and 250 of the latter, all of which are now carefully grafted, cultivated and saved for posterity on the family’s fourth-generation Northport farm. (Read the Traverse Magazine feature about Kilcherman Farm here).
Many of the apple cultivars—some of which date back centuries—were nearly lost to history as the grocery industry narrowed the field to a few mass-marketable fruits. But Kilcherman and a handful of farmers across the country are now devoted to making sure the exotic life of the humble apple gets a new chapter in its history. You can read the story behind the Kilcherman farm, its ever-growing collection of apples and get recipe ideas in a new book—Antique Apples of Christmas Cove Farm—which hit bookstores just in time for this year’s harvest.
This article was originally featured in the October 2016 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine.
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Find apple desserts, salads and sauces in MyNorth’s recipe directory!
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