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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 for pre-sale through their website beginning the 2024/25 Bareroot Season 

November 11, 2024 

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The SOLD OUT Varieties listed below are for informational purposes only, ones we have sold over the years, and 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 and 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, 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. 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.

Ten of these varieties will be available through Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply this year in our 2024/25 Collection. 

Thank you for all your Support!

Cluster Walnut
+2

Cluster Walnut

Store/Walnuts
SKU 00144
$0.00
Sold out
Product Details

Cluster Walnut (Juglans Racemosa)

Drawing from Felix Gillet's Barren Hill Nursery Catalog - 1885

This unique walnut variety has been known to bear clusters of wonderful walnuts of up to fifteen nuts, unlike other walnuts, which bear at most 3-4 in a group. Here is what Felix had to say in 1885: “This remarkable walnut, also introduced into California and the United States by us, is a worthy rival of the Praeparturiens, and whose planting is warmly urged in France by the leading horticulturists of that country. The Juglans Racemosa derives its name from the Latin word racemosus, meaning abundant in clusters, full of clusters, which is the main characteristic of the Cluster Walnut, whose nuts grow on the tree in clusters of eight to fifteen, and even twenty to twenty-eight. Otherwise in habit, size, form and foliage, the Cluster Walnut does not differ from the Juglans Regis (English Walnut). When getting to bearing, the nuts are first found in bunches of two or three, which number is increased every year, when finally the tree gets to bearing those astonishing clusters of nuts form twelve to fifteen. We have seen one of these trees bear as many as 75 to 100 gallons of nuts; and in a good year 150 gallons.”
We owe the finding of this almost extinct variety to our friend Alex Suchan of Suchan Nursery in Upper Lake, Lake County, CA. Alex, 88, is the dean of walnut growers and propagators in California. He is a wealth of knowledge, propagating walnuts since he was 14 years old. His nursery now produces more than 200,000 modern walnut trees each year, yet Alex has an appreciation for the heirlooms. When we asked Alex about the Cluster he remembered a single tree that he harvested more than 50 years earlier on a parcel in Lake County. He took us to the grandmother tree, still standing but in a very precarious state of health and neglect. The neglect has caused the tree to reduce the number of nuts in a cluster to 5-7, but we are hoping with your care we will see the Cluster walnut again rise to its justified place in history. THANK YOU Alex!
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Cluster Walnut
Store/Walnuts
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