Southwest Colorado was once a national hub for unique apple varieties. Today, a group of hard cider artisans are restoring the local orchard economy.
Sometimes Jude Schuenemeyer will find an apple tree that he just can’t identify. With over a hundred unidentified varieties in southwest Colorado, the tree could be one of any number of rare or endangered specimens. If Schuenemeyer is lucky and the tree is hanging with ripe fruit, he can take a crunchy, juicy bite into an apple and taste a flavor that has been forgotten for nearly a century. “It blows you away,” Schuenemeyer says.
A hundred and twenty years ago, Montezuma County was a hub for the state’s apple industry, with thousands of trees dotting the mountainous, high-desert terrain. Though neglected for decades, today these historic trees are finding a new market as a budding craft cider industry takes root in southwest Colorado. Continue reading at 5280 Denver’s Mile High Magazine…
BY MARGARET HEDDERMAN
October 18, 2021
The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project can be described as many things: an agricultural project, an economic development project, a history project — even an apple scavenger hunt.
Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer founded MORP in 2014. It has several orchards in Montezuma County. The Schuenemeyers’ own orchard and nursery in McElmo Canyon grows more than 200 different apple varieties.
One of their main goals is to preserve every kind of apple grown in Colorado.
Sometimes that involves a treasure hunt — like the Schuenemeyers when he set out to find the Thunderbolt apple. Listen to and read full story at CPR News.
By Carla Jimenez and Nancy Lofholm | September 2, 2021
Photo by Hart Van Denburg/CPR News, August 30, 2021.
The Colorado Orange isn’t an orange at all…it’s a remarkable type of apple, a late-ripening golden yellow fruit with a reddish blush and a hint of citrus flavor. And if it weren’t for the efforts of orchardists like Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer, the Colorado Orange and other rare apple varieties might have been lost forever.
The Colorado Orange tree originated in the historic Fremont County orchard planted in the 1860s by Jesse Frazier, the first successful apple grower in the Colorado Territory. The Colorado Orange, nearly forgotten today, was popular and well-known in its heyday. It was featured in catalogs and even sent along in boxes of the state’s finest apples to President Teddy Roosevelt in 1905. And in 2018, there was only one known Colorado Orange tree left.
Jude Schuenemeyer says that the Colorado Orange is not the only endangered strain of apple in the state with an interesting story. He and his wife have found many “unique unknowns,” varieties with just one or two trees left that they send to a lab for DNA testing. The Schuenemeyers co-direct the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project (MORP), and they are rescuing these rare trees in a cluster of heritage orchards in their care in Montezuma County. “Our mission is to work to preserve Colorado’s fruit growing heritage,” said Jude Schuenemeyer. Read full story at San Juan Skyway Visitor Guide…
By Deb Dion | March 9, 2021
The historic Gold Medal Orchard, located in McElmo Canyon, represents one of hundreds of remnant historic orchards located in Montezuma County and Colorado. First planted in 1890 by James Giles, the orchard soon earned its name by winning a gold medal for the quality of its apples and peaches at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Time passed, the trees grew into their grandeur, and then slowly faded into the landscape. Over 100 years later, only a few historic trees remain, hardy remnants of the orchard’s former glory. Heritage fruit varieties were lost, and the story of the Gold Medal Orchard and its prize-winning fruits was nearly forgotten. Read more at ISSUU from 2021 Colorado’s Most Endangered Places…
By Colorado Preservation Inc | February 11, 2021
All apples are not alike, as any apple-phile will tell you, and the deeper you fall under the spell of heirloom apple varieties, which number in the hundreds, the more you will hunger to try them. You’ll want to start small if you don’t own an orchard, though, and there’s no better place to begin planting those roots than the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project. MORP’s mission is to preserve and restore Colorado’s heirloom orchards, and it sells trees to fund the nonprofit’s work. Currently you can choose varieties online at $60 each, but you have to pick them up, by appointment. It’s a long drive to Cortez, but it’s worth it.
By Westword, 2021 Best of Denver
