Found!

To locate one of anything that was considered extinct is an amazing accomplishment. To date Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project has (re)discovered three apple varieties: the Raspberry apple, the Colorado Orange apple, and the Cedar Hill Black apple. It also found the rare Early Strawberry apple which is not stored in the Plant Genetic Resources Unit in Geneva, New York. Yet, there is much more to be done. MORP loosely estimates there are around 1000 apple trees 100-years-old or older still growing in the area.

Of these, 55 are planted in Jude and Addie's McElmo Orchard. The rare, found, and unknown, unusual, varieties are shared for preservation purposes with the wider fruit community, including Seed Savers Heritage Orchard in Decorah; Tooley's Trees in Truchas, New Mexico; and Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Due to the pressure of time MORP commonly grafts from trees of unidentified material basing its selection on the age of the tree and even on historical context. For example, even if the last remaining tree grafted from the award-winning Gold Medal orchard turns out to be a common Jonathan, the tree still has historical value; as does a scion that was grafted from a tree once grafted by Jasper Hall, known as the Fruit Wizard of Montezuma County. The goal of MORP is not only to save the genetics, but the living histories that go with these trees.

The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project has succeeded in finding, collecting scions, and rooting grafted fruit trees of these rare varieties:

Cedar Hills Black Apple

Colorado Orange Apple