Trees that echo the past at Nagog Hill Farm

After several years of neglect, these apple trees show signs of care. ¶ 

Some are even bearing fruit: ¶ 

The state of things at Nagog Hill Farm in Littleton, Massachusetts, last week. ¶ 

Alas, the farm has moved on, an orchard no more.

Across the road, the trees remain scraggly and wild. Much of the rest of the old orchard has been cut clear.

Here's to Nagog Hill

This was a grand fruit farm with many trees, including some varieties I have not found anywhere else.

It was an early stop on my apple journey, and holds a special place in many hearts.

The Town of Littleton, which has owned the farm sunce 2001, was for many years able to lease the land to a grower. But the business had several setbacks and closed about five years ago.

(That probably does not do the story justice: feel free to untangle this extremely chatty account.)

What next for Nagog?

There have been several suitors for the property: the Stormalong cider company, and most recently, a native tree farm, which signed a lease last year and is doing business as the Hopewell Native Tree Farm.

Still a farm, but the crop is not fruit but trees. Hopewell's website says,

Hopewell is located on historic orchard land now transitioning into a regenerative native tree farm. As part of our Native tree blog Massachusetts, we document this transition. Instead of pesticide-intensive monoculture, our fields are becoming.

They plan to grow some fruit, but not, as I understand it, apples. 

A tribute

A nursery and and a fruit farm are pretty different enterprises. Restoring those old trees near the barn—not more than two dozen, I guess—is a graceful gesture to what is now the past.

I know I've left out a lot of this story: Feel free to fill in the gaps.

Ancient and holy things fade like a dream.