On our drive home from the horse show I pulled in to this beautiful old homestead… it was apparent no one was living there by the condition of the house, however the apple orchards out back looked well maintained. There was a sign out front that heralded a weekly farmers market with the sign “Halls Homestead”….I found the following through a google search that brought me to a Foody blog post about Apples.
“This beautiful antique orchard is owned and cultivated by Paul and JoAnn Desrochers. – 18th Century Purity Farm At The Hall Homestead. The farm has been in JoAnn’s family since 1830 when her great great great grandfather came to Connecticut from Rhode Island and planted the majority of the apple varieties that persist even today. Paul and JoAnn cultivate 88 varieties of apples at three different properties in the area- most of these varieties grow at Hall Homestead. There is a wild and timeless feeling to the fields and trees that spread across the hill beyond their farmhouse and barn.
These apple trees have flourished in JoAnn’s family for generations, even surviving the devastating effects of the hurricane of 1938 in which dozens of trees were decimated. Her grandfather painstakingly reestablished the trees that still produce today.
JoAnn and Paul took took over the Hall Homestead in 2008; it had declined during the preceding years was completely abandoned when JoAnn’s mother died in 2007. They have nurtured the trees back to health over the past three years, working from dawn until dusk.”
To read more about this extraordinary couple and their apple orchards and varieties… see link below..
http://foodiefatale.com/?p=4315
