Scott Farm

Driving the winding road up to Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont, feels like stepping back in time. The farm has been active since 1791, when George Washington was in his first term as president, and to this day it maintains the aura of a quintessential New England farmstead. Each of the 23 buildings on the property are part of the National Register of Historic Places, with the iconic white-clad 1862 barn as the centerpiece. Adding to the charm throughout the landscape is an impressive array of masterful dry-stacked stone walls built by the Stone Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and promotion of dry stone walling. It’s no wonder this place was the site to film the Academy Award–winning adaptation of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules.

The real magic begins up the hill, past the barn and through the fence gate. Long neat rows of apple trees snake their way up the rise, and when you turn back around you are greeted with a panoramic view of the Green Mountains. It’s truly idyllic. While most orchards of this size are composed of perhaps a handful of commercially popular varieties, Scott Farm boasts nearly 130 varieties of heirloom apples. 130! For historical apple fanatics like us, it is a dream come true to see varieties like Belle de Boskoop, Cox’s Orange Pippin and Tolman Sweet grown on this scale in this day and age.

The original orchard, planted in 1911, became one of the first to use refrigeration to store apples. In its patented apple-shipping crates, Scott Farm once shipped fruit across the country and even internationally. In the early 2000s the original trees were topwork grafted and “the orchard evolved from one of conventional management and cultivar selection to an ecologically managed heirloom apple oasis.”

In recent years we have been fortunate to connect with orchardist Erin Robinson, who has deep roots in the Dummerston community and has generously welcomed us again and again to tour the undulating orchard rows, taste and photograph the fruits, and collect quality scionwood from her immaculately maintained trees. Erin knows the orchard like the back of her hand and is dedicated to stewarding this extraordinary place. All winter long you can find her on the mountainside pruning each of the nearly 3,000 trees by hand. Throughout the spring and summer she is eagle-eyed, coordinating her beloved crew and working long days nurturing the diverse crops from blossom to harvest.

During a winter visit in 2022 we marveled at part of the old barn that has been converted to a large cooler for fruit storage. In a good year the full bins (16 bushels in each) are stacked 6 or 7 high, even in the depths of winter. It was so fun to see the patchwork of different colors and textures of familiar Fedco favorite heirloom apples en masse: bins full of golden Roxbury Russets, bright red Baldwins, and deep purple Black Oxfords. Erin explained the puzzle of accessing the crates of different varieties. Whereas other commercial orchards may often have one dedicated storage unit full of just Macs or Honeycrisps, the diversity in the Scott Farm cooler requires a game of forklift Tetris to get to that one bin of Blue Pearmains that you need. These days nearly 80% of Scott Farm’s harvest is sold and distributed within 100 miles of the orchard.

Scott Farm is more than just apples. They also grow medlars, quince, blueberries, grapes, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, currants, ginger and paw paws. And this year, thanks to a late-night orchard bonfire battle to protect blossoms against frost in April, an elusive crop of beautiful Northeast-grown apricots! Scott Farm offers a fruit CSA, makes and bottles quality fermented cider, runs a seasonal cafe, hosts weddings, events and tours, and rents out lovely historical homes for farm stays.

If ever you are in the Brattleboro area, we encourage you to visit this gem tucked away in the Green Mountains. Look out for new Fedco catalog offerings from their extensive collection.

– Jacob Mentlik