Workshops – Books – Tours – Trees – Plants

Towards A Climate Resilient Food Economy:

We have passionately searched the Sierra Nevada and Western States to re-discover the living library of plants still scattered across Northern California, those trees and plants left over from the 1800’s and early 1900’s Gold Rush era.   These are the grandmother trees that have become climate resilient with no human attention for the last 100 years. They give the best fruit and nuts in conditions that most fruit and nut trees can not endure with large annual temperature variations. These  grandmother trees have learned to thrive under the most harsh conditions. We want to make them available to growers, gardeners and communities throughout the West Coast.

We have personally found these trees and have taken cuttings directly from the 100+ year old grandmother trees that still cling to life in ghostly, historic orchards. We offer very rare and 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. 

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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 will be available through Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden for the 2024/25 Bareroot Season. 

Stay Tuned…

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The SOLD OUT Varieties listed below are for informational purposes only. These are many of the plants we have found and sold over the years. While some of these varieties will be available this Autumn, many will not. 

Hope is on the Horizon.

We will have historic fruit and nut trees available for preorder

November 1, 2024.

Thank you for all your Support!

Orders only accepted via the website.

Yellow Pearmain
+3

Yellow Pearmain

00128
$0.00
Out of stock
1
Product Details

This green to golden yellow apple is of excellent dessert quality. It has crunchy flesh and a sweet floral aroma that stands out amid many other apples in our taste testing. The mother tree is a strong healthy grandmother who has withstood the difficulties of living in the forest, cared for only by Mother Nature. Amid another 100 other apples, pears and walnuts at the infamous Buck’s Ranch, she was planted in the mid 1800s in order to feed the hungry miners and to make hard cider. This apple definitely gave a sweetness to the harsh, new living conditions the miners found themselves in. Resistant to frosts and fireblight.

The mother tree grows at Bucks Ranch, Nevada County near Orleans Flat mining camp at 4100 feet on the San Juan Ridge overlooking the Middle Fork of the Yuba River. The Buck brothers homesteaded this property in the late 1870’s, in part to provide fruit for the thriving mining camp. Amigo’s odyssey with Felix Gillet began in 1970 when he stumbled on this abandoned homestead with more than 75 thriving ancient fruit and nut trees, planted by the Bucks’ from stock purchased from Felix Gillet, the “local” nursery guy, a days horse ride away in Nevada City. The only thing tending those trees in the 70’s were the bears! We began harvesting the fruit and nuts, and discovered their amazing quality, and the trees were healthy despite annual onslaughts from the bears and heavy snows. Now cared for once again, the trees get no irrigation, fertilization or pest management, just occasional pruning. And they still produce great crops, 140 years after they were planted!



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