Who We Are

Fruit growers. Plant breeders. Possibly reincarnated orangutans.

North Orchard is a small Massachusetts orchard — zone 6 — planted about ten years ago and expanding past sensible capacity ever since. Rows of apples and stone fruit, a pawpaw patch, American and hybrid persimmons, grape and kiwi arbors, seedling beds, and a small army of potted figs that gets hauled in and out of winter storage every year.

All told, well over 150 varieties grow here: heirloom, cider, and modern apples; figs from every corner of the Mediterranean (and a few street corners of Boston); persimmons, pawpaws, plums, peaches and nectarines, mulberries, and the occasional jujube and almond. Everything gets grown out, photographed, tasted, and judged honestly. The good ones earn a permanent spot. The mediocre ones get one more season to argue their case. The local wildlife casts its votes early and often.

There’s breeding going on here too — Hakuto peach seedlings, seedling apricots and plums, and a handful of other long-shot projects. Most will amount to nothing; that’s how breeding works. The ones that don’t, you’ll see here first.

Everything in the shop is cut dormant, in small batches, from the same trees in the photographs. Fig cuttings are listed in the fall, scion wood in early winter. If something you want is sold out, the mailing list on the home page is how you’ll hear when it’s back.