When I bought my place decades ago it was nestled in a tiny piece of former farmland with a little 1880s house and no garden. There were, however, five giant apple trees, at least a century old even then – all overgrown, but still willing to bear fruit despite their age and years of neglect. I’m very attached to them even though I still don’t know their names … which was why I wanted to talk to today’s guest, Jamie Hanson, the orchard manager for Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa, who knows a thing or two about heritage apples.

Seed Savers has a major collection, and each year it distributes scion wood and rootstock for grafting new trees from the historic ones in its collection, and teaches a series of virtual courses on every step of how to do that and grow ones of your own and care for them.

We’ll also learn how old apple trees like mine can now be identified through the relatively new process of DNA testing.

In her role as orchard manager for Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, Jamie oversees more than 1,000 apples in the collection there, in two 8-acre orchards. Jamie’s interest in the intersection of history and horticulture began during her studies at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, and she joined Seed Savers in 2022.

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