CONSERVATION

Paul Gidez sensed he found a surviving Harrison in
Essex County, New Jersey, where it had been described
decades before, and later reported it to Tom. At last, in
1989, Tom was taken to meet an elderly gentleman who
had retained a seventy-five year old tree in his derelict
orchard near the town of Peramus, New Jersey. After
dinner, the elder took Tom out to see the ancient tree,
where Tom confirmed what his friend had suspected:
the Harrison cider apple was not extinct at all, but just
out of commercial cultivation. From that day on, Tom
set out to bring Harrison back to the marketplace, and
has sunce found other Harrison trees surviving in New
Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
Fortunately, “Professor Apple,” as Tom is
called today, is as good as an orchard-keeper’s and
cidermaker’s mentor as he is a nurseryman, historian
and sleuth. As Stuart Madany of Castle Hill cidery
once commented, “Tom can really romance one with
the intrigues of apple growing.” Burford has not only
done so with the Castle Hill staff, but with the Shelton
family of Albemarle Ciderworks and Vintage Virginia
Apples, and with the Flynts at Foggy Ridge Cider near
the Blue Ridge Parkway. Grafted Harrison apple trees
are now being offered by Vintage Virginia Apples,
Fedco Trees, Trees of Antiquity , Big Horse Creek
Farm, Cummins Nursery, and Northwest Cider Supply.
While Diane Flynt, Stuart Madany, and the Sheltons
have surely had an inspiring mentor, they have each
added their own legitimate contributions to the
recovery of Harrison, to other rare heirloom apples,
and to the hard cider revival in general. Diane Flynt,
like Charlotte Shelton at Abemarle Ciderworks, was
an accomplished businesswoman before she took up
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