The Enduring Orchard.

• Author: Mitchell, John (American attorney general)
• Position: Nagog Hill Orchards

The hand of nature and the hand of man join together in raising food. The continued survival of a New England orchard through three centuries of war and peace affirms that unique bond and enriches our history.

Sometimes in September, when the air is still, and the apples are heavy on the branches, and the evening air has that redolent odor of old fruit, I go down to the orchard above Nagog Pond and sit on a wall above the pond to think. By general agreement, this is as fine a prospect as any in this section of eastern Massachusetts. Sojourners, cyclists, apple pickers, and accidental tourists (the tract is not marked on any maps of the region) happen upon this place and halt in spite of themselves. There is a play of geography in this 123-acre plot of trees that has worked its way into the Western psyche, a sensation that says in so many words, this is New England--old orchards, still waters, deep woods, and a deeper history.

What most of these sojourners do not know is that this grove of apples, peaches, and pears is one of the oldest continuously operated orchards in the region. Furthermore, it is the site of one of 16 Christian Indian villages that were establislhed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1650s by John Eliot, the so-called apostle to the Indians. In mid-century, Eliot arranged to have the General Court grant outright certain tracts of land to those native people who agreed to accept the Christian God. The village that Eliot set up at Nagog Pond was called Nashobah Plantation and was located in what is now the town of Littleton. It consisted of a tract of land of some 16 square miles, the heart of which and probable village center was the hill above the pond where the Nagog Hill Orchards are now located.

One of the first products that the Indians at Nashobah planted would have been apples--an important crop in the early New England settlements, which the agriculturally minded Indians took to immediately. The English colonists, who settled in the Nashobah Valley region in the 17th century, were mostly from Kent, which is still the fruit-growing region of southern England. They probably brought local varieties, such as Pearmains, Russets, or Winesaps over with them, either as slips or as seeds, and no doubt these were among the first trees to be planted at the Indian orchard at Nashobah. But even as early as 1650, when the village was established, local New England orchardists had been breeding varieties such as Roxbury...