Clyde Jenkins, left, lives on his family’s Page County homestead where he took the “seed” of apple knowledge from his father and grandfather and grew it to unlimited proportions. In addition to pomology, Jenkins knows a thing or two about white oak basketry. He makes hundreds of them a year, and some of them sell for hundreds of dollars each.
Laura Dean Bennett
Staff Writer
Clyde Jenkins has spent a lifetime seeking out American cultivars thought to be extinct, researching the origin of our American apples, grafting, growing and cultivating not only his orchard, but a renewed interest by the younger generation for our heritage apples.
Talking to Jenkins is like taking master course in Pomology 101.
At 70 years of age, one might think he would speak slowly, but honestly, I had a hard time keeping up.
We began with his family’s legacy – the Page County homestead, established by his grandfather in the 1890s.
Jenkins and his wife live in the original log cabin built by his grandfather, and he is rightfully proud of his heritage.
“I live on the old mountain homestead that was built by my grandfather,” Jenkins said.
“This farm was built on a rocky hillside. It took a lot of hard work. He reclaimed the land, built orchards and left a legacy for my family.
“He set apple orchards and many other fruit trees – cherry, pear, peach and plum – as was the custom back then.
“Apples were a mainstay of life in the old days. They were a valuable source of food for people and for their animals.
“It was a great thing that the apples could be kept through the winter and that they also could be made into cider,” he added.
His grandfather bequeathed the homestead, its orchards and his knowledge of fruit cultivation to his son, who, in turn, passed it on to his son.
“My grandfather died before I was born,” Jenkins explained. “But my father had learned a lot from him, and he taught me all he knew about how to graft the apple trees and care for them.
But the apple trees my grandfather planted were old and they were dying. I didn’t get to them in time to save those old heritage varieties,” he said sadly.
“There’s only one of them left now.
“I got more and more interested in apples and found out about places where I could get proper rootstock for grafting apples and grafted ever since. I’ve been grafting about 4,000 to 5,000 apples trees a year.
“There are now about 350 varieties of apple trees growing on my farm,” Jenkins states proudly.
“There are some very rare varieties like Bellflower, Green Baldwin, Summer Arose and Paradise Sweetening.
Jenkins enjoys educating all who care to learn about the history of the apple – its many distinct varieties – their flavors and their uses.
By the 19th Century, there were thousands of apple varieties in America – what we call heritage apples.
As family farms began giving way to development, and the market for fruit and vegetables began being dominated by large corporations, the number of heritage apples dwindled.
Supermarkets were more interested in uniform size and shape than unique flavors, and the market for apples changed. By the middle of the 20th century there were only a few dozen commercial varieties of apples readily available to consumers.
The old regional varieties have become difficult to find. Most have disappeared altogether.
Besides being an expert orchardist, Jenkins is a dedicated student of apple history and a detective unraveling the secrets of our disappeared heritage apples.
He’s spent his life learning and teaching others about the apples that will grow well in our region.
“Correct pollination is done by bees which carry pollen from each stamen in the blossom. In correct pollination the bees just don’t get all the stamens pollinated.
“Interestingly, apple blossoms are one of the least favorite blossoms for bees,” he told me.
“Think about it, you just don’t see apple blossom honey.
“They prefer wild flowers,” Jenkins added.
To keep their orchards fully pollinated and producing well, apple growers need to keep their orchards mowed when their trees are in bloom.
“Apple growers need good conditions for nearby bee hives or wild bees and they need to encourage the bees to concentrate on the apples, not wildflowers or other flowering trees, otherwise you risk not having a good crop,” he insisted.
“I used to have bee hives, but now I have feral bees doing the pollination and they do a good job.”
What is the best way to fertilizer for apple trees? Jenkins says it’s very simple – “Ashes.”
Those who burn wood are producing the best apple tree fertilizer there is. And actually ash is good for all trees.
You can buy fertilizer for your trees, but why spend money on fancy fertilizers when you can use what you already have?
If you have a wood stove, a fireplace, a grill or a smoker that uses wood, shovel up the ashes and place them around the base of your apple tree.
“Not only are ashes the best fertilizer for your apple tree, but their lye content is a natural bug deterrent.
“Fertilize your apple trees in the winter. Dig a trench around the base of each tree, along the drip line, about 5 to 6 inches deep. Don’t dig too close to the tree and be careful not to fertilize too close to their roots.
“Plant your apple trees 15 to 20 feet apart, depending on whether they are dwarf or standard size, and surround then with six foot high fencing,” Jenkins advised.
One of the apple skills he teaches is grafting, which is the technique of inserting a section of a stem of a preferred apple species into the stock of an existing tree.
Grafting is the most modern form of reproducing an exact species, but it is an ancient skill. The Greeks, Romans and many other ancient cultures practiced grafting.
Besides being the only way to reproduce an original cultivar, grafting is also used to repair injured fruit trees or for combining an established tree with different cultivars.
As a serious reader and collector of scholarly tomes about pomology, Jenkins has advice for those who want to do more in depth study on the cultivation of apples.
He recommends reading the first book written in 1817 about American apples, A View of Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider by William Coxe.
Calhoun.
In addition to being an apple expert, Jenkins is also a renowned white oak basket maker. It’s an old traditional skill which will die out if more folks don’t take it up.
It takes many years to understand the intricacies of getting the delicate strips of wood from white oak trees for basket making.
Jenkins makes hundreds of baskets a year, and some sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Apple picking is one of the great activities of the fall season. Grab your best basket and fill it to the brim. It makes a nice addition to your kitchen as you work to turn them into pies, sauce or any number of delicious treats.
His baskets are on display in Washington, D.C. at the Renwick Art Gallery near the White House.
And, as if that’s not enough to keep a man busy, he’s also an experienced historic preservationist. He has a trained team of young apprentices who assist him in rebuilding log cabins and antebellum homes, repairing ancient stone chimneys and walls and restoring furniture.
Jenkins and his apple trees and baskets regularly make appearances at historic festivals throughout the two Virginia and surrounding states.
“I go to festivals all year, every year – I don’t know how many,” he said. “These festivals bring in so many people who want to learn about the old ways. They want to learn how to identify apples and how to propagate them.”
He is a renowned Virginia Folk Life Master Artist – and a participant in the Virginia Folk Life Festival for more than 20 years.
Jenkins has made appearances at the National Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. and in recent years he’s been coming to Pocahontas County, as a favorite demonstrator at Huntersville Traditions Days.
“We are so proud to have Mr. Jenkins coming to Huntersville Traditions Days,” said Tim Wade, president of Huntersville Historical Traditions.
“He really is a valuable addition to our group of demonstrators who show our guests how things were done here on the frontier in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
Sometimes attired in authentic 18th century clothing and usually with the beginning of a white oak basket in his lap, Jenkins patiently answers questions about apples – from their myriad varieties and their origins to their cultivation.
Jenkins identifies apples for people by cutting in half the apples they bring to him and taking a quick look at the unique seed pattern within. And he hasn’t been stumped yet.
Somehow Jenkins also finds the time to teach a weekly basket making class every summer, from June through the end of October, at the Big Meadows Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
“I’m 70 years old and can’t do everything I used to do, but I still get out and go every day. I’m always working on something,” Jenkins said.
“I’d like to think my grandfather would be proud of me and what I’ve tried to do, keeping the old ways and teaching others how to do it, too.”
“I give God glory every day that I keep going out and working on these things.”
Clyde Jenkins and many of his heirloom apple saplings and baskets will be in Huntersville at the Historical Traditions Days festival October 5.
Jenkins invites anyone wishing to have their apples identified or who want to learn about apple cultivation to speak to him there.
Hi,
Saw you at the festival this past weekend in Ferrum. Wanted to get back to talk to you, but my daughter, Katie, and I were with our weavers group from Patrick County, doing Natural dyeing all day. We have an old apple tree and no one I’ve asked knows what it is. It was here when we moved to farm in 1996. It had come back from an old trunk. I have 2 apples left from this season in my refrig. The apples have white flesh, crisp, tart, but also sweet. The tree produces a huge amount of apples each year. If I were to send you the apples (with an ice pack they’re starting to have bad places on them), do you think you would be able to identify or would you even want to.
Thank you,
Kay Horton-Eutsler