Sunday, May 17 at 3 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall
Apple trees in blossom — where have all the flowers gone?
In the year 1909, at the height of its fruit industry, the orchards of Orcas Island boasted 76,731 apple trees that bore more than 41 varieties of fruit with such exotic names as Red Astrachan, Blue Pearmain, Reinette, Blenheim, Jersey Black and Paradise Winter Sweet.
Ten years later a third of those trees, more than 25,000, had been destroyed. The vibrant agricultural community that was projected to eventually support an urban community of over 60,000 reverted to a sleepy rural hamlet and a quiet countryside.
What happened to those trees is a complex story of conflict between the vitality of a small agrarian society and the irresistible force of a national social experiment, a battle between temperance and the temptation of the apple. It will be the subject of the next “History Matinee” with Charles West on Sunday, May 17 at 3 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall.
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