Christmas Cove Farm

We had a chance to visit one of our favorite "apple stops." Christmas Cove Farm is owned and operated by John and Phyllis Kilcherman and is a cherry farm by most standards in the summer and then specializes in antique apples in the fall, after cherry season is over. 

Antique apples are very old apple varieties that you cannot find in your standard grocery store. They never made it to "main stream" apple consumption for a whole slew of reasons: some are hard to grow, don't ship well, don't last long enough, don't look pretty enough, etc. 


Despite this they are wonderful to try. Most have a written history card next to the carton so you can read about the apple first. They have some strains that have been in existence for many hundreds of years. 

The "Lady Apple" was small and carried in purses of young ladies in medieval times. They'd take a small bite before or during a party or gathering---it was a breath freshener! Another is the Spitzenburg which was Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple and he grew them at Monticello.

Also, and as you can tell from the other pictures, John collects more antiques than just apples. If we recall correctly, he has over 10,000 collector soda pop bottles from virtually every corner and era of the US. He's got a great selection of signs too. 

Click the link to get a neat glimpse of their operation--they ship too! We stopped by, got about a peck of apple varieties, and cider. It's the best way to kick off the fall season!


Andy


PS: This is Michele's little guy (Cricket). She's enthralled with the idea of getting shots of him in various gnome-like poses.