< Select A Different Album Carolinas Chapter Orchard Tours Fall 2008 November 8, 2008 The orchard maintained by Don Myers and Susan Wilson on their property located above the Sandy Mush Valley was toured first. The second tour was of an orchard at Winterberry Farm, located on top of Newfound Mountain in Heywood County, that is maintained by the Stanbacks. Click on any photograph to enlarge it. Carolinas Chapter members touring the two orchards are pictured. The first orchard toured is maintained by Don Myers and Susan Wilson on their property located above the Sandy Mush Valley. Pictured is one of the hybrid trees growing at the Myers/Wilson Orchard. Blight has attacked the tree. It displays moderate resistance to the blight. Members collected leaves, burrs and nuts from hybrid trees. The materials will be sent to Clemson University for biochemical analysis as part of a research project involving chestnut trees. Dr. Paul Sisco checks a tree at the second orchard visited which is located at Winterberry Farm on top of Newfound Mountain in Heywood County, NC. Steve Barilovits and Dr. Brian Joyce look on. Member Dr. Patricia DeCoursey is pictured. She is the Director of the University of South Carolina's Belser Arboretum. While touring the orchard she told of her having met Dr. Arthur Graves, a scientist involved with early research into restoring the American chestnut tree. As a girl of 14, Patricia collected American chestnuts growing in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts and delivered them to Dr. Graves at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens of New York. Dr. Graves was very appreciative of the gift of nuts and told Patricia about the research work in which he was involved. Members touring the orchard at Winterberry Farm were treated to freshly pressed apple cider. Ilona Stanback gathered apples from trees growing next to the chestnut orchard, ground them, pressed the juice from the mash, and served everyone a sample. Sheli Stanback looks on as her daughter operates the cider press. Another treat members enjoyed at the Winterberry Farm orchard was viewing a restored chestnut log cabin. Paul Sisco holds a Bluebird house made of salvaged American chestnut wood. Doug Gillis, who made the birdhouse, gave it to Paul, who is retiring at the end of December, as a gift. The construction of the Bluebird house is based on a design developed by Jack Finch who established the non-profit company, Homes for Bluebirds, Inc., Bailey, North Carolina. It was a beautiful day to tour Chapter orchards. The hills surrounding the Sandy Mush Valley were resplendent with fall colors. When looking out onto the hillsides in such beauty, one knows that some day in the future that mature chestnut trees will grow again in the eastern forests. The work of many researchers, scientists and volunteers whose goal it has been and continues to be to develop blight resistant, hybrid American chestnut trees will have come to life in the forests. < Select A Different Album < Home