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Thanks to Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply (originally started by our founder Amigo Bob Cantisano), a collection of some of our favorite species and varieties  are available for pre-sale through their website for the 2024/25 Bare Root Season 

Felix Gillet Collector Trees

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Below: the SOLD OUT Varieties listed are for informational purposes only. These are the trees and plants that we have re-discovered and sold over the years. They are the result of our passionate searches throughout Northern California, the Sierra Nevada and Western States to re-discover the historic, agricultural, living library still in existence. These trees and plants, left over from the 1800’s and early 1900’s Gold Rush era, were discovered on historic mining camps, ranches, and  homesteads. Most of these trees have become climate resilient with no human attention for the last 100 plus years. They give the best fruit and nuts in conditions that most fruit and nut trees cannot endure with large annual temperature variations.

These  grandmother trees have learned to thrive under the most harsh conditions, and with uncertain weather patterns.  It is our goal to make them available to growers, gardeners and communities throughout the West Coast.

We have personally taken cuttings directly from the 100+ year old grandmother trees that still cling to life in some, often deserted, historic orchards. The Felix Gillet Institute trees are very rare, exclusive plants – some may have only just been rediscovered.

95% of plants available during the 1800s are no longer available today.  We are saving what is left before they die. 

 You can become a Mother Orchard Supporter and help us in our efforts to discover more rare, historical trees and care for our collection of over 250 trees, by clicking on the Mother Orchard link above.

Ten of these varieties are available through Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply this year 2024/25. 

Thank you for all your Support!

Fit for the Czar Apple

Fit for the Czar Apple

Store/Apples
SKU 00118
$0.00
Sold out
Product Details

This heirloom owes its name to its place in California horticultural history. In the mid 1890s Lowell Hill, near the Bear River, was already a famed apple growing area. James Buckner, then a well known fruit grower in Lowell Hill was documented in 1894 to have shipped two hundred boxes of highly prized apples to Nicholas II, then the Czar of Russia. Imagine the logistics of shipping apples around the world in the 1890s! This must have been one helluva a fruit to justify its international fame! We have discovered what we believe to be the trees in the remnants of a Lowell Hill orchard, that still produces wonderful fruit. This Pearmain type fruit is sweet, crunchy and very flavorful. It harvests in September to October @ 3900' and keeps for at least two months, longer with refrigeration. Excellent for fresh eating, very good in pies and applesauce. May be a good addition for cider, we haven’t tried them yet.

The grandmother tree exists on a historic orchard in Lowell Hill, at 3900’ in Placer county, CA. Lowell Hill was a gold mining town from the 1850s through the early 1900s and attracted numerous farmers and ranchers due to the deep forest soils, plentiful snowpack and good access to markets via proximity to the Western Pacific railroad in Dutch Flat, a rip roaring mining town on the other side of the Bear River. We have located three distinct heirloom orchards still growing around Lowell Hill with no human care. The bears and squirrels are the biggest challenge to harvesting these crops and the long-term survival of the trees.

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Fit for the Czar Apple
Store/Apples
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