CHRISTMAS COVE FARM: THE TASTE OF LONG-FORGOTTEN APPLES
(OH, AND DID WE MENTION THE WORLD’S LARGEST COLLECTION OF POP BOTTLES?)
A Press-Ready Travel Feature
From the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau
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Mike Norton
Media Relations
Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau
mnorton@mytraversecity.com
231-947-1120
101 W. Grandview Parkway
Traverse City, Michigan 49684
Photo credit: Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau (www.visittraversecity.com)
Cutline: John and Phyllis Kilcherman in their orchard of “antique apples” at Christmas Cove near Northport. (The apples behind them are Brocks, a variety bred at the University of Maine in the 1930s.)
By MIKE NORTON
TRAVERSE CITY – The apples themselves are deeply aromatic: an evocative blend of spicy fragrances that tug persistently at the cords of memory. So do their names – Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Haralson, Golden Russet, Seek-no-Further, Pink Pearl.
Not so long ago, in the days before mass marketing and standardization, the world of apples included hundreds of varieties, each with its own unique size, appearance, taste and aroma. The Winter Banana, which really did taste and smell like bananas. The Winesap, the Snow Apple, the Yellow Transparent. Today, those nostalgic apples are all but forgotten.
Except at Christmas Cove. Here at the tip of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, a pair of stubborn farmers have preserved over 240 varieties of these “antique apples” and are reintroducing them to the world. Every fall, hundreds of apple fanciers make their way to John and Phyllis Kilcherman’s isolated farm to taste, smell and buy such hard-to-get treasures as the Strawberry Chenango, the Opalescent, the Spitzenburg and the Ozark Gold.
“We’ve had people stand here and cry,” says John. “An apple can mean so much to someone. Maybe they were married under a particular apple tree or had one growing in front of their house. There is this strange connection between people and apples.”
That connection is one reason for the Kilchermans’ fascination with forgotten apple varieties. John grew up here at Christmas Cove, a remote paradise of patchwork-quilt farms and orchards bounded by the windswept shores of Lake Michigan and the sheltered waters of Grand Traverse Bay. It’s a region where apples, cherries, peaches and plums have been grown for over a century, and his childhood memories were filled with the taste and smell of vanished apples.
In the 1970s he began collecting old nursery catalogues and journals to identify some of the classic varieties that could still be found growing on gnarled old trees. Carefully, he acquired cuttings of each variety and grafted them to existing rootstocks to produce healthy young versions of the ancient trees: the Green Newton Pippin, a tart apple that can be traced back to 1722; the Spitzenburg, Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, and the tiny sweet Lady apple, which goes back to Roman times and was used as a pocket breath freshener by 17th century ladies.
From that small beginning, Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm has grown into a living library of vanished apple varieties, a sort of Colonial Williamsburg for fruit – except that this history is for sale. It was Phyllis who developed the idea of turning her husband’s obsession into a business. Today the Kilchermans run a thriving mail-order operation, and although they only open their small farm to customers from mid-September until November, during that time they’re continually swamped with visitors.
“There are weekends when we have 75 people standing here at one time,” says Phyllis. “That’s something, when you consider how we’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
Well, not exactly. Surrounded on three sides by water, Christmas Cove certainly isn’t on the way to anywhere else, but it’s only a 30-minute drive from the shops, restaurants and resorts of Traverse City and has become a popular stop on autumn color tours. And it doesn’t hurt that the Kilchermans are hiding yet another unsung treasure on their farm – a collection of over 10,000 historic pop bottles that John insists is the largest in the world. They’ve collected and traded them on vacation – bottles from Alaska and Alabama to Australia, Iraq.
“I’ve visited the guy who’s listed in the Guinness Book, and my collection is bigger,” he says, peering around at the thousands of glinting bottles that line the walls of his barn from floor to ceiling. “So when people come to try our apples, they get a free look at my bottle museum, too.”
The Kilchermans also produce their own cider, blending in dozens of their historic apple varieties until they get the right balance of tartness and sweetness. Phyllis insists it’s the best cider available in more than a generation.
“Making good cider is like making good wine,” she says. “You’ve got to have the right blend. There are times when we’ve got 25 to 30 apple varieties in our cider.”
VISITING CHRISTMAS COVE
Kilcherman's Christmas Cove Farm is at 11573 Kilcherman Road, just outside the picturesque village of Northport, which faces south into Grand Traverse Bay near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Phone (231) 386-5637. Information about the farm can be found on line at www.applejournal.com/christmascove
The window of opportunity for a visit to Kilcherman’s is fairly narrow. John and Phyllis open their doors to apple-tasters and bottle-fanciers on Sept. 15 and stay open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the week until late November or early December. Fortunately, this is also peak fall color season in this part of Northern Michigan, and the drive on M-22 from Traverse City winds through a charming succession of coastal farms and quaint fishing villages.
WHAT ELSE TO DO
The village of Northport is a charming stop, with several restaurants, art galleries and shops to beguile the traveler. Only a few miles past Christmas Cove is Cathead Bay, site of the historic Grand Traverse Lighthouse, one of the oldest lighthouses on the Great Lakes, which has been turned into a charming maritime museum with extensive exhibits chronicling the lives and the experiences of those who sailed the lakes.
A few miles closer to Traverse City is the headquarters of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, who operate an extensive gaming
To the west are the dramatic rock-strewn beaches of Peterson Park, which look out over Lake Michigan. Adventurous visitors who choose to continue “around the horn” on M-22 can make their way back to Traverse City along the western coast of the peninsula through the scenic lakeports of Leland and Glen Arbor, and the magnificent Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
To learn more about the Traverse City area -- and for information about lodging packages, culinary treats, outdoor activities and indoor attractions -- contact the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-TRAVERSE or on line at www.visittraversecity.com
