On their hilltop homestead in Castle Hill, Gary and Tonya Willhide are tending to an eclectic mix of fruit trees, some probably among the first to be grown in Aroostook County.
The Willhide’s have spent more than a decade gradually building their homestead and planting edible and useful perennials such as apricots, chestnuts, grapes, honey berries, locusts, and persimmons, along with traditional Maine fruits like apples and blueberries.
“We’re just trying to get a wide variety of things growing,” said Gary Willhide. “Most of our fruit trees are pretty young. Some are just starting to bear fruit.”
The Willhide’s moved to Castle Hill in 2010 from central Pennsylvania, after purchasing their land in 2003 as part of their long-term goal of setting up a small farmstead. Avid gardeners and backpackers, they found an ad in Mother Earth News for the property and it turned out it was the right one.
“We had not been to Maine or Aroostook County,” Willhide said. “It peaked our interest, and we came up and fell in love with the area.”
Before moving to Castle Hill, the Willhide’s spent long stretches camping at their property with their two kids, now young adults, as they started plantings, fixed up an old home and met neighbors. Some years on their way north they’d stop for the annual spring tree sale at the Fedco Seeds Warehouse in Clinton to find deals on fruit trees.
One of their first perennial plantings from 14 years ago is now yielding well — Concord grapes that were sourced from an elderly couple with a small vineyard in nearby Washburn. Last year, they made their own, naturally-carbonated fermented grape soda.
Both of the Willhide’s work full-time, Gary as a U.S. Post Office carrier and Tonya as a supervisor at Homeless Services of Aroostook in Presque Isle. Gradually, they’re aiming to build their business, Castle Hill Crops, to grow fruits, vegetables and seedlings for local markets.
“Slowly, each year, we’re looking to sell a little more, and hopefully one day we can do that full time,” Willhide said. Currently, they sell herb and vegetable seedlings from their farm, and also invite people to come explore their hiking trails, with views from a bluff overlooking the Aroostook River.
-
- Black locust trees at Castle Hill Crops, grown from seed planted in 2012. Though considered invasive in some parts of the U.S. black locusts are useful as nitrogen-fixers, honey bee nectar sources, and for rot-resistant posts and lumber. (Anthony Brino)
It will be a business journey as well as an agricultural experiment to see what flourishes among the dozens of fruit, nut and edible perennial species the Willhides have planted.
Among the possibilities are a range of old and modern apples, including the Dudley, a variety that hails from a local Castle Hill orchard circa 1877. Another old locally-evolved fruit they’ve planted is the Garfield pie cherry, a cold-hardy, disease-resistant cherry variety from Garfield Plantation, located about a dozen miles southwest of their farm.
And then there are the fruits that are not so common anywhere in Maine.
One of them is medlar, a fruit in the rose family popular in Roman and Medieval times that’s perhaps best known for seeming to be too-ripe when it’s fully ripe, a process known as bletting. Despite having that reputation in today’s era of blemish-free fruit, Willhide said the medlar is delicious.
“Medlar is kind of a hobby of mine. I tried in at an orchard and just thought I would try to grow it one day. Eat it ripe, or in baked goods. The longer you leave it go, it seems better.”
Another one they’re looking forward to is the persimmon, a fruit commonly found in the wild in the central Appalachians and Midwest and normally grown commercially in California, where less cold-tolerant Asian varieties are grown.
Several American persimmon varieties, like some of the ones the Willhide’s sourced from a Wisconsin nursery, are likely cold hardy enough for northern Maine winters. How the fruit will fair is another question, as they benefit from both warm fall weather and frosts before harvesting, to mellow their pre-ripe astringency.
Either way, it could be as long as a decade before their persimmon trees are bearing fruit in earnest, Willhide said.
“We had a lot of friends that had them in Pennsylvania. I think people here will like them if they try them.”
