Nick Botner
4015 Eagle Valley Road,
Yoncalla, Oregon.97499,
541-849-2781
Is a good source and very helpful to new explorers. From his house on a slight knoll, he looks over Eagle Valley and his orchard of 2000 varieties of apple, plus pear, plum, cherry and grape. He operates by mail order.
When I get his new list in the mail, it is almost like receiving the old Christmas catalogue when I was a kid.
PICO – (Plant Improvement Co. Ltd.)
Box 6000, Summerland BC
V0H 1Z0
250-494-5157, 250-494-7472 (F), 250-494-8959 (Budwood Orchard)
Formerly run by the Ministry of Agriculture, but now private, their Certified Budwood Program establishes and maintains virus free fruit trees in their orchard and offers scionwood for sale. They have about 125 apple varieties. They are in place primarily for the commercial growers or small hobby farmers.
Resource People
Ron Pither
Ports West International
Organic Product Specialist, Sales and Marketing Specialist.
RR #1, Mayne Island, BC, V0N-2J0
Phone/Fax 250-539-2034
Email: rpither@gulfislands.com
Fred Janson
Now deceased
This is what Fred Janson used to do and the reason he was so loved and valued by amateur apple growers everywhere.
A great source of scion wood and a very enthusiastic, helpful collector. Besides running POMONA BOOK STORE (not connected to NAFEX), he grows 600 trees or 250 varieties, that have been selected from 800 varieties. One really unique feature is the 40 geese that roam the orchard. They eat any fallen apple, thus avoiding problems with rotting apples, they keep the grass cut, they make lots of noise if any intruder appears, they create lots of fertilizer and in the fall there is great demand for apple fed geese.
Founding Member of NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers)
Owner of huge fruit library, POMONA (not connected to NAFEX)
Author of Pomona’s Harvest, a huge, well-written book on the history of apples, starting at the Roman times. With over 100 pages of bibliography, this book has been getting rave reviews. One reviewer claims it is a labour of love by a true scholar.
The Apple Man, by M. Alice Simonds, Harrowsmith Magazine, Mar-Apr 1988, page 82