Welcome to Apple Season at the Crossnore Heritage Orchard! Unfortunately, we do not have a normal apple crop this year, a common problem across Avery County. In fact, the regional apple crop was off by 90% this year. Now, by late September, we don’t have any apples left!
We currently have 28 varieties on 43 trees, most of which were common in Avery County. These historic apple varieties produce 40-100 bushels of apples annually. The apples are free for public collection, hands on education, and the celebration of apple history.
Beginning this year, our new website / smartphone based system now allows for “self guided” tours bringing you more local and national apple history along with beautiful watercolors of these historical apples. Our educational orchard is open 7 days a week, daylight to dark, free of charge.
This website is accessable on most digital devices. As you walk through the orchard, locate the trees by their number and read about each one of the trees. These apple varieties are 100 to 350 years old. They were grown by our nation’s “Founding Fathers” and by many of our own grandfathers, over multiple generations.
The Crossnore Heritage Orchard has been available for over 15 years for individuals to bring their families and friends here to learn about and taste these historic apples when available.
If you would like to help support this effort simply click on the “Donate Now” button on this website. This year we received a “501 3c” designation and contracted with PayPal to help us! We are happy to give those of you who want to help us take care of your Orchard, the opportunity to make a tax-deductable donation.
This project began in 2009 when the Crossnore Communities for Children contacted the Avery County Cooperative Extension Center for help establishing a community orchard in the town of Crossnore. Planting a collection of heirloom apples was the mission. It has become the “Living Library” of the historic heirloom apple varieties of Avery County.
The Crossnore Communities for Children, the Avery County Extension Center, the Town of Crossnore, and Volunteers pitch in to cultivate and maintain this orchard. Click < Acknowledgements < to see all the folks who have made this Orchard possible.
Our new indepth website has more comprehensive information on the local and national history of each apple variety. To dig deeper, look to the left to access the many useful pages.
Thanks for visiting this website. Please leave comments and any questions we can help you with. We welcome your thoughts to help us with this “work in progress”. To contact us it’s best to Email us at: Crossnoreheritageorchard@gmail.com You can also message or call us at 828-387-0174.
Thank You!
