Recently, a reader contacted me about a variety of subjects. Thus, I was alerted to the Felix Gillet Institute.  It is an interesting  organization propagating heirloom fruit and nut trees dating back to the Gold Rush era in Nevada, Placer and Yuba Counties by grafting stock from old orchards, abandoned homesteads, etc before they become obliterated.

In 1861, Zenus J. Brown is credited with the planting of the first apple and peach orchard in Susanville. It did not take long before the Honey Lake Valley was dotted with apple orchards. By the1880s, apples from the region were being sold in the Sacramento Valley. In 1906, Lassen County reported to the State of California that there were  10,000 fruit bearing apple trees in the county. The trees produced 770,000 pounds of apples valued at $8,000.

There are a lot knowledgable readers, some of whom might enlighten us as to what historic varieties of the fruit trees of the area, before they disappear. If I am correct, there was an old orchard near Janesville that was destroyed in the 2021 Dixie Fire.

Tim