The 2nd Annual Heirloom Apple Tasting took place yesterday. 85 different varieties of apples sourced from about a dozen orchards in Maine and New Hampshire were part of the event that I helped organize along with friends Sean Turley and Cecilia Ziko.
A few of my favorites were Ashmead’s Kernel, Esopus Spitzenburg, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Frostbite, Sundance, Ribston Pipppin, Pitmason Pineapple and Red Astrachan.
Nearly all of the apples were purchased in a single day on Saturday within a few hours drive of Portland. It’s encouraging to realize that so many great heirloom varieties are out there if we just take a bit more time to explore.
For those of you without cars, Rosemont Market is the best in-town source of unusual apple varieties. There’s also a rare apple CSA that is run each fall called Out on a Limb run by Maine’s preeminent apple expert John Bunker.
Update: Here’s a complete list of the apple varieties we had on-hand for the tasting. It includes information of which orchards we bought them from, and interesting details on their origin and apple genealogy.
What a terrific event. Many thanks to Anestes, Sean and Cecelia for doing a yeoman’s job of pulling together 85 varieties of apple! And thanks to Maine et Loire for hosting in their great wine shop.
Thompsons point FB page has a pic of container and start of where clam shack is going next year
Going through the thompson’s point pages on the city’s planning board site I saw they labeled a building with the winery and distillery which we know about, but they also list 10k sq feet for a brewery. Has a brewery come up before and I didn’t see it?
There have been rumors but nothing to my knowledge has been confirmed and reported.
Oh. Well only confirmed spots are listed in the plans so they must have something lined up. Also read one of the restaurants will be put inside the hotel to make for more space. I still see a beer garden outside. The clam shack built from containers has a metal roof above it which will be good for them. This whole project is going under the radar with all the focus on midtown and portland company complex. This will be huge.
Random note , I’m making a totally baseless prediction that wok inn will become an Otto
My assumption was that it’d probably an expansion for the brewery that as already has a bit of a presence there…crazy talk?
http://me-portland.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/2742?fileID=12076
Page 8 shows where restaurants/beer gardens go
Page 10 shows the breakdown of buildings and you can see the 10k sq ft brewery listed