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Maine
Maine grower is changing the state's fruit tree landscape
The Fameuse apple originated in Canada in the 1600s, but its role in Maine’s apple history was epic.
It’s thought to be a parent of the state’s popular McIntosh, which has been a staple for hundreds of commercial and private orchards around the state for more than 200 years.
The Fameuse and other old varieties like it, such as the Black Oxford, Cherryfield and Chenango Strawberry apple, almost disappeared but were revived and now thrive across Maine.
Their tales often go back to early settlers who brought the trees from overseas to plant on new homesteads and farms. Black Oxford, a Maine original, was discovered on the farm of an Oxford County nailmaker in the 1790s; a Hallowell tree planted in 1799 is still alive. Cherryfield was developed in that Down East town more than 150 years ago, then rediscovered by residents. The Chenango Strawberry apple was originally called Frank after the first name of a New York man who introduced it; others know it as Zepherus Chernogous.
By the 1970s, many such Maine trees were near the ends of their lifespans. Their fields were overgrown, the farmers who planted them forgotten. When Palermo resident John Bunker started rediscovering them, they were mostly “mysterious, anonymous gifts from the past.”
These apples, their histories and their abilities to thrive in Maine’s weather could disappear forever if someone didn’t take action soon, he realized. That led him to create the first Fedco Trees mail-order in 1984: a two-page handout, including 17 apple types, stapled to the Clinton-based Fedco Seeds cooperative catalog.
Over the next 40 years, Bunker’s hobby grew into a business that has changed the state’s fruit tree landscape on homesteads and small farms, saving and spreading these varieties that could have been lost otherwise, along with other unique fruits, trees and ornamentals.
Though heritage apples are familiar to many Mainers, Fedco Trees’ current coordinator Jen Ries said there’s still work to do. Until everybody knows about heritage fruit and you can find it at any grocery store, the mission continues, she said.
Popular choices for Fedco customers today include the Black Oxford; Baldwin, one of New England’s oldest apples with origins in 1740s Massachusetts; and Northern Spy, an all-purpose from Connecticut first planted from a seed more than two centuries ago.
Estimates vary, but the United States likely had more than 7,000 such cultivars in the 19th century and probably has less than half that many today as commercial production focuses on favorites such as Granny Smith and Honeycrisp. More genetic diversity in plants means more resilience from weather, disease and pests, which disappears with extinction, according to numerous researchers, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Back in the early 1980s, local resources for Maine gardeners focused on vegetable production, according to Bunker. He thought people should have access to fruit education and tree stock too — plus, he had questions about their history.
He uncovered fruit names, history and characteristics through books, conferences, a booth at the Common Ground Country Fair, tracking down experts, finding mentors and, occasionally, knocking on a stranger’s door after driving by an interesting tree. Bunker estimates he’s spent hundreds of hours in orchards, botanical gardens and arboretums in Maine, Boston and New York.
He decided early on to make the catalog intelligent, honest, educational and focused on what he knew best — cold-hardy varieties growing in Maine.
If someone from Texas read it, he hoped they’d be inspired to start their own locally focused project. Heritage apple nurseries and preservation orchards exist across the country with a scattering of other “fruit detectives,” working independently and together in groups such as the Historic Fruit Tree Working Group.
The catalog grew, and a physical community did too around an annual in-person spring sale of discounted extra stock. That event was an equalizer, Bunker said, drawing businesspeople alongside homesteaders.
By 1994, his hobby had grown into a full-time job. Ries started working with him 22 years ago and took the lead at the tree division around 2020.
This year’s catalog has 170 apples and 650 listings, from cherries to groundcover plants to asparagus. Popular choices include the Madison Peach, Montmorency Cherry, Purple Heart Plum, American Elms and American Chestnuts, according to Ries, plus lilacs and cold-hardy heritage roses. The division sold more than 100,000 plants and trees last year.
Small local farms grow about three-quarters of this stock with mentorship from the company. Some have started their own nurseries.
Fedco also grows trees from farther south, such as the Chestnut Oak, with a native range from Georgia to southwestern Maine that’s now surviving farther east, and American Sycamore, which previously grew in the southern states and the central Midwest.
That’s in response to the way climate change is shifting growing conditions and bringing new pests, according to Ries. People are starting to plant southern species here to prepare for a warmer climate, a process called assisted migration.
The company also added a refrigeration system to keep its trees dormant through the winter, which they need to survive cold temperatures and grow successfully. In the past, it stayed cold enough to store them outside.
Things have changed on the commercial side of Maine’s apple landscape too, according to Renae Moran, a tree fruit specialist with the University of Maine. Twenty-five years ago, McIntosh, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious were dominant.
Honeycrisp, a patented fruit first sold in the late 1990s, is the focus for growers and the university’s research farm now, she said, along with other trademarked cultivars that growers are trialing themselves.
The university doesn’t have data for hobby growers, though she noted an increasing interest in hard cider. Moran said many farmstands carry heritage or antique apples, but sales are limited in comparison to commercial types.
Every year, Ries sees new customers be surprised by the variety of fruit that exists. She’s also seeing more new gardeners and people growing food in cities or suburbs, using the trees to feed their families, serve as memorials or mark life events.
Forty years in, Bunker comes across apple trees he sold that have grown large enough for grandchildren to climb on.
“It’s very personal for people to plant a tree,” Ries said.
Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
A Maine Republican Party online survey on the gubernatorial primary has sparked frustration and exposed divisions among the crowded field just a week before the party aims to project unity at its convention in Augusta.
Multiple campaigns told the Bangor Daily News they were not aware of the poll in advance or had not received the survey in an email sent out widely by the party last week. The campaigns said the survey’s timing and the fact that not every candidate had the chance to work the poll and vote for themselves sent the wrong message.
Former fitness executive Ben Midgley won the straw poll, which the party noted was not scientific. His campaign cited the nearly 32% support as a sign of rising momentum in a race that’s been led so far by lobbyist and former federal official Bobby Charles. Charles came in second at almost 30%, and entrepreneur Jonathan Bush came in third at 13%.
Charles has led previous polls without spending nearly as much on advertising as Bush or groups backing lobbyist and former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason. Midgley was among a large group of candidates stuck in the single digits in a survey released in March by Pan Atlantic Research.
Staffers at two campaigns said there was briefly talk of boycotting the convention after the poll. Delegates are poised to gather over Friday and Saturday at Augusta Civic Center, where the party says another straw poll is planned.
Mason said he did not see the survey in his email but acknowledged it may have been received by his team without it getting up the chain.
“It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do for party unity,” Mason said. “It’s not the best look.”
Vincent Harris, a Charles spokesperson, said the campaign “did not push or promote this straw poll to a single person.” He said the campaign was unaware of the survey until Midgley’s release.
“As Republicans, we believe voter integrity is important and yet there was no clarity here,” he added.
Entrepreneur Owen McCarthy’s campaign was also not aware of the online stroll poll until after results were released. A spokesman for the campaign called it “unfortunate that with the convention right around the corner, the whole process has been tainted by the perception that party insiders are trying to foist their preferred candidate onto grassroots primary voters.”
Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine GOP, said the party believed all the candidates had received the poll, but “we take everybody at their word that says they didn’t receive it.”
He and a spokesperson for the Bush campaign also separately noted that the straw poll was discussed during a pre-convention Zoom meeting, and he said it went to the party’s entire email list. The poll went to at least two BDN email addresses.
Savage emphasized that the convention poll would be “one person, one vote” per delegate.
“Everything in a few days is going to be about the convention,” he said. “Everybody is invited to compete and do their best and see how they can do.”
More than 200 Fort Fairfield Middle High School students, staff and administrators filed into the school’s gym on April 8 for an anti-bullying assembly.
On stage, surrounded by neon tube lights, was the Icon Dance Team, a New York-based troupe that travels to schools around the U.S. dancing and singing to radio hits interspersed with messages about self-respect and standing up for others.
Parents were notified of the performance in advance, MSAD 20 Superintendent Melanie Blais said. No one contacted the district afterward to complain.
But six days later, on April 14, the conservative influencer Libs of TikTok blasted a series of posts about the performance — and its lead dancer — to its millions of social media followers and accused the district of “openly grooming” its students.
“This is what schools are pushing on your children using our tax dollars,” one caption reads. “SHUT THEM DOWN.”
Commenters tagged the U.S. Department of Justice and called Maine a “demonic” state. Some encouraged violence against one of the dancers.
District officials insist the performance focused only on encouraging positive self-esteem and counteracting bullying. And despite the recent furor on social media, they say local people have shared no concerns.
“The content of the program included messages about standing up for oneself and others, reporting bullying to trusted adults, encouraging students to set goals and to include peers who may be left out,” Blais said.
The issue concerned the group’s frontman, James Linehan, who is also a musician with the stage name J-Line. In his music career, Linehan bills himself as “your favorite gay pop star” and is currently on a tour called the “Dirty Pop Party,” where he performs alongside other LGBTQ artists.
Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik, a former Brooklyn real estate agent turned social media provocateur, pulled photos from Linehan’s music website, in which he is shirtless, and targeted his sexuality to argue that he was pushing sexually charged content on children.
The Icon Dance Team, which also goes by the names Echo Dance Team and Vital Dance Team, is a separate entity. The group, active since at least 2011, features Linehan and two backup dancers and has performed at more than 2,000 schools, according to its website.
Performances consist of 30 minutes of choreographed dancing and singing to songs about self-acceptance, followed by Linehan recounting how he was bullied in grade school and his journey to finding his life passions and respecting himself.
School officials reviewed the group’s website before scheduling the performance and found it aligned with the district’s anti-bullying goals, Blais said.
“The group was chosen based on strong recommendations from several other school districts where similar performances had been presented in the past,” Blais said. “Those districts described the assemblies as positive and energetic and praised their messages about self-esteem and anti-bullying.”
Hours of the group’s school performances posted by other districts online and reviewed by the Bangor Daily News do not include suggestive dancing and Linehan does not mention his sexuality.
This is not the first time the dance team has faced criticism, nor the first time Libs of TikTok has taken aim at Maine.
In the past year, the account amplified a school board debate over the harassment of transgender students in North Berwick and the election of a Bangor city councilor with a criminal record. The account was among the right-wing influencers that successfully campaigned to doom a 2024 bill before the Maine legislature that surrounded gender-affirming care.
Icon’s performances at schools in Utah, Ohio, Texas and Tennessee have come under scrutiny from parents who referred to Linehan’s music career and posts on his social media accounts.
A district in Missouri canceled two assemblies in 2023 after receiving complaints. Some of the criticism is linked to allegations that Linehan encouraged students at some performances to follow his Instagram, which is tied to his music career. Parents alleged it contained “inappropriate” content.
That Instagram page is now private. Blais said they raised the issue with the group ahead of the performance.
“That was not a part of the performance in any way and we clarified this with the company prior to their visit to our school,” she said.
Linehan did not respond to a request for comment.
Libs of TikTok has almost 7 million followers between X, Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform founded by President Donald Trump.
Raichik, the account’s creator, has mingled with Trump and other right-wing politicians and activists at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, the president’s Florida residence. Her posts, which can receive hundreds of thousands to millions of views, have helped shape anti-LGBTQ discourse in conservative circles and have been promoted by the likes of podcaster Joe Rogan and Fox News.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels Raichik as an extremist.
But despite the assembly generating national outrage last week, in Fort Fairfield, the community appears unshaken.
“We’ve not received a single call or email from local community members that I am aware of,” Blais said. “We initially received a handful of calls from individuals who were clearly not affiliated with the school district in any way, but they were not interested in hearing what actually took place.”
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