Spring blossoms in the orchards at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.

Why the orchards are important

Consumers usually have only five or six varieties from which to choose when they select grocery store apples.

Today's hybrid varieties are grown for shipping endurance and their lovely appearance on market shelves. Produce travels an average of 1,200 miles from grower to consumer.

The staff at White Violet Center for Eco-Justice at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., a ministry of the Sisters of Providence, is motivated to produce better-tasting apples.

The antique apple trees at White Violet Center are planted in the orchard named for John Delahaye who was the gardener for Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

Choices on what to plant were made from an array of antique varieties: Poundsweet, Sheep's Nose, Sops of Wine, Spitlen, Summer Rambo, Cox's Orange Pippin, Wolf River, Westfield Seek-No-Further, York Imperial and Smokehouse for example.

Most of them do not keep in travel because they bruise easily. Some have irregular shapes, which isn't a common find in mainstream groceries. Some apples have speckles. There is all the difference in the world in taste and texture.

Fruit trees are not easy to grow organically. Light, ecologically safe sprays are used to prevent disease and smother dormant insects. They are mulched and fertilized regularly.

For the record, apples are part of the rose family, traceable in ancient writings to the fourth century B.C. in Egypt, Babylon and China. In North America, apple trees were first planted at Massachusetts Bay by pilgrim settlers.

The University of Illinois extension service says about 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world, about 2,500 of those in the United States. Dole Food Co. acknowledges that only limited varieties are found in groceries: 90 percent of the apples grown in the United States come from 16 varieties, and 80 percent come from only eight varieties.

Not all apples taste alike. There is no comparison in the apple you get at the grocery store and the apple you get off of a tree.

Heirloom apples

Seven new antique/heirloom varieties were added to the orchards at White Violet Center for Eco-Justice in spring 2008:

Akero — probably the best Swedish dessert apple. Tile red over yellow, roundish, cone-shaped, crisp, juicy, raspberry tang.

Esopus Spitzenberg — Thomas Jefferson secured 12 of these trees which he had become fond of while he was in France. Some believe it to be the "finest eating apple in the world when perfectly ripe."

Mutsu — It is very large, round in shape, colors pure yellow with a crisp juicy flesh of a delicate spicy flavor …faintly anise-like. This is a high quality dessert apple.

Northern Spy — dates back to 1800 and is a classic American apple great for pies or eating right off the tree.

Pink Pearl — A recent introduction (1944) from California breeder, Albert Etter, this is a rich flavored apple with a fine aroma and bright pink flesh.

Winter Banana — from the Flory farm in Cass County, Indiana about 1876. A large winter apple with a delicately and beautiful rosy blush. It has a mild, juicy flavor.

The variety, Canadian Strawberry, was donated by Cathy Newhall of Indianapolis who frequently volunteers her garden skills at White Violet Center for Eco-Justice.

Most of the new apple trees are on dwarfing rootstock and should reach bearing age within three to five years.