An orchard still grows on the Waschke homestead, but not the orchard that was planted a hundred years ago.
Planning the orchard
My grandparents began their life together in the northeast corner of their forty acres, just over the fence from my grandmother Agnes’ parents, the Matzkes, in a spot that was somewhat protected from the northeast wind by the ridge that marked the transition from the Silver Creek to the Deer Creek watershed. Their master plan was to locate a house and barn on the western boundary of the property, which was a section line and right-of-way for a county road.
My grandmother’s grandparents brought their son and his family to Whatcom County from Pomerania. My grandmother told me her grandfather traveled all over northern Europe building mills. She did not know or didn’t tell me the type of mill he built, but they were likely to have been sugar mills for converting sugar beets to sugar. My great-grandfather Gottlieb worked on sugar mills, which were booming during the late 19th century in Europe. That’s a story for another time, but both the Waschkes and the Matzkes were seasoned builders who helped plan the layout of the Waschke Homestead farmyard. The farm buildings, including the house, were laid out in a rectangle surrounding the well and orchard, a common pattern in northern Europe that resembles a castle keep. You can see the outline of the farmyard in the real estate photo here. The old chicken house and brooder house that marked the north side of the square are not visible under the foliage.
Gottlieb’s trees
According to my father, Ted, the orchard was laid out and planted by my great-grandfather, Gottlieb. No doubt Gus and Agnes, my grandparents, voiced their preferences, but Dad often said that no one ever argued with “Grossvater.”
Gottlieb collected seeds, cuttings and root stock from the German community. I say German community because I understand Gottlieb was never comfortable in English. He did his own grafting and some of the old apple trees bore more than one variety of apple. Because Gottlieb did his own collection and propagation, the old trees were unique and only approximately like the varieties available from commercial nurseries today. Unfortunately, my father and I let the old trees die and replaced them with standard nursery stock.
Cherries
The orchard grew three varieties of cherry. A cherry similar to a Bing grew near the house. We kids used to climb into the tree in late June or July and gorge ourselves until we lost our appetites. We called another tree the Bing cherry. It was intensely sweet, dark and smaller and firmer than cherries sold as bing today. Grandpa picked them for Grandma to can. Another tree bore small sour, soft, and juicy pie cherries, which went into tart, flavorful pies.
Apples
The first apples to ripen in the orchard were the Transparents, which were good eating after the shriveled apples that wintered in the cellar. The Transparents went into pies in July, but turned to mush and rotted away by the end of August. The apples we called Red and Yellow Gravensteins were later ripening, the best eating fresh apple from the orchard, but they didn’t keep well over winter. The Red Gravensteins were crisp, tart, and had with a rich aftertaste that reminds me of a good Amontillado sherry. I don’t get that Amontillado aftertaste from the Gravenstein apples sold in nurseries now. The Red Delicious and a Golden Delicious trees in the orchard were similar to the varieties in stores today, but smaller and crisper, almost hard. They kept better than Gravensteins. The best keepers were a smaller red apple that we called winter apples. They might have been a Mckintosh. The most exotic apple in the orchard, we called “Banana Apples.” They had a sort of acetone taste reminiscent of ripe bananas. Wikipedia has an entry on Winter Banana apples, but I don’t know if they are the same. The tree did not yield well, and I don’t remember using them for anything. For pollination, a crab apple grew in the orchard. Some years, my grandmother made sweet clove and cinnamon crab apple pickles.
Plums and nuts
Plums, both dark purple egg-shaped Italians and a lighter and rounder variety we called “sugar plums,” ripened at the end of the summer. There were two walnut trees, which died after a nasty spring northeaster in the early fifties that froze hard after many trees had begun to leaf out. Fruit trees all over the county were either killed or damaged by that storm. I believe that storm was the cause of the eventual death of most of the old trees. We also had a few Filbert trees, but they did not always pollinate and were often barren.
Pears
I have left the pears for the last. We had three varieties—two yellow Bartlett types and a reddish pear that was nothing like red pears in supermarkets today. One of the two Bartletts is the only tree left from the orchard that Gottlieb planted. The old pear tree is on its home stretch. Branches are dying, but the tree still bears copious sweet fruit.