When I think I about fall I think about selling apples. I’ve sold apples or cider nearly all of my life. Back in the day, seems like nearly everyone had an apple tree or two and were glad to get rid of the apples. At that time there were at least two cider mills where I would take the apples. We would never have imagined Thanksgiving without cider.
Most of these were trees that had never been sprayed, and of course there might have been a worm or two but I guess we didn’t mind. I was able to sell all I could make quite quickly by just putting it out. I’m not sure which would be worse, having a worm or two or eating the pesticides which we use today. There are at least five diseases or pests that attack apples.
My father went to Barr Street and South Side market in Fort Wayne, and always sold apples and cider. Back in the day, there was an apple orchard smack dab in the middle of Hicksville High School. There was also an orchard about a mile North of Farmer, Ohio, on Highway 2. The sales barn is still there. So much for the 100 year lifespan.
We picked apples at both orchards and my mother fell off a ladder in the orchard at Farmer. She broke a vertebrae in her neck and recovered, but it bothered her the rest of her life. There were many varieties of apples that are no longer around. I remember McIntosh, Winesap, and a few others. We old duffers miss those varieties.
Nowadays it seems the popular one is Honeycrisp. For years I stored apples in a well pit. One of the interesting things, was that when you took the remainder out about next march, the Granny Smith apples would be red and sweet as sugar. I think perhaps they just ripen later, kind of like the Kiefer Pear.
When we moved to Grabill there was a big Bartlett pear tree in the yard. We sold pears from that tree for years and had some of the same customers every year. A man from Paulding would call every year. That tree died and it was probably old because it had been hollow many years.
It is sad to see the trees go. My dad had an apple orchard, peaches, apricots, and plums, gooseberries and strawberries. A neighbor had a huge spray rig mounted on a wagon . All of these went away with the family farm. We see some of these coming back with the farm to table movement. Perhaps in the future we will regret turning all the farm land into houses.
I remember seeing the orchards in Ohio being bulldozed. Where my son lives in Bloomington, Illinois, there was a huge orchard on a farm, and they had a festival every fall. They sold apples, pies and baked goods, and took you out to the field to pick out a pumpkin. We went there for years, and when the old folks retired, none of their four kids wanted to do the work , so the bulldozer was called.
Ramblings of a seasoned citizen. My dad attended Barr Street market in Fort Wayne, and the city in their infinite wisdom had it torn down, to use for parking for Wolf & Dessauer. A big part of two blocks had been donated to the city for perpetuity to be used for a farmer’s market. So much for perpetuity.
When it was closed my father attended South Side market. That is still there and covers a city block, but they have struggled for years, because the city isn’t what it used to be, and they have had zero publicity. Barr Street is coming back but the beautiful building is no longer there.
—James Neuhouser
