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PAGE 4B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. MARCH 18. 2021
Community Bank
earns BauerFinancial
5 star rating
Community Bank of
Pickens County is honored
to announce the bank has
earned BauerFinancial
Inc.’s highest 5-Star Supe
rior rating.
A 5-Star rating indicates
that Community Bank of
Pickens County is one of
the strongest financial insti
tutions in the nation, ex
celling in such areas as
capital, loan quality, prof
itability and much more.
Ryan Keeter, president
& CEO of Community
Bank of Pickens County,
stated “Our dedicated and
experienced staff along with
our loyal customers are to
be credited for the bank
being recognized with this
prestigious designation.”
Established in 2000, Com
munity Bank of Pickens
County has been serving its
community for 21 years.
Today it operates through
two conveniently located
full-service offices in
Jasper. Community Bank of
Pickens County can be
found on the internet at
www.cbopc.com, or visit
our two locations at 15
Sammy McGhee Blvd., and
65 Cove Rd. Jasper, GA
30143.
Community Bank of
Pickens County: “Your 5-
Star Financial Institution.”
MEMBER FDIC and an
Equal Housing Lender.
BauerFinancial, Inc.
Coral Gables, Florida, the
nation’s leading independ
ent bank and credit union
rating and research firm, has
been reporting on and ana
lyzing the performance of
U.S. banks and credit
unions since 1983. No insti
tution can pay for or opt out
of a BauerFinancial rating.
Consumers may obtain free
star-ratings by visiting
bauerfinancial.com.
5-Star Rated
by BauerFinancial, Inc.
At
r r
Awarded 2021
One of the Strongest
Financial Institutions
in the Nation
FDIC
Are we getting it straight?
If you spot an error in our pages,
let our staff hear about it.
Call 706-253-2457 or email
dpool@pickensprogress .com
Heritage Orchard reclaiming
Georgia’s forgotten apples
photo/Mike Terrazas
From left, Josh Fuder, Ray Covington and Stephen Mihm
have been VGA’s driving forces behind the creation of the
Heritage Apple Orchard.
*
By Michael Terrazas
University of Georgia
Athens, Ga. - The names
tick off like racehorses or
colors from some fancy cata
log: Carolina Red June,
Duchess of Oldenburg,
Hewe’s Crab and Rabun
Bald, Limbertwig and Nick-
ajack and Parks’ Pippin, and
many more. But these aren’t
paint chips—they’re apples,
hundreds of varieties that
thrived in orchards across
North Georgia a century ago,
before an evolving apple in
dustry swept them off shelves
and tables, never to return.
Until now. With the help
of a dedicated group of Uni
versity of Georgia re
searchers, Extension agents
and volunteer enthusiasts,
Georgia’s lost apple varieties
are making a comeback. The
newly planted Heritage
Apple Orchard, located at
UGA’s Georgia Mountain
Research & Education Cen
ter in Blairsville, is meant to
reclaim many of those by
gone cultivars and demon
strate why Georgia once was
at the center of the U.S. apple
industry.
Arranged in neat rows
over two hillside acres that
overlook the Chattahoochee
National Forest, the Heritage
Orchard will soon provide
another educational and agri
tourism attraction for the
Mountain Research & Edu
cation Center, a unit of the
College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences. But
it will also yield satisfying
produce for Georgia con
sumers and researchers.
“One very basic benefit is
simply to reconnect Geor
gians with the history, and
the agricultural history, of
their state,” said Stephen
Mihm, associate professor of
history in the Franklin Col
lege of Arts and Sciences.
“But there’s another, very im
portant virtue to this work,
which is that the apple culti
vars that thrive in Georgia are
not typical in their tolerance
for heat and humidity.
There’s growing interest in
tapping into those traits ge
netically, and that’s not only
restricted to apples.”
Mihm helped launch the
Heritage Orchard project out
of personal interest. He and
his wife purchased an old
farmhouse near Athens that
came with a restrictive
covenant requiring that the
acreage be used, at least in
Speed Burger
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10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.
Drive Thru, curbside and online
at Mobile Bytes Loyalty
Call-in Welcome 706-692-5136
Burgers
Hotdogs
Sandwiches
Corndogs
Salads
Chicken tenders I
Sides
Fries
Onion Rings
Slaw
Mac-n-Cheese
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes
Plates
Flamburger Steak
Shrimp/Fish
Bar-BQ
Country-fried steak
Grilled/Fried
Chicken
(1/4 fry & 1/2 fry)
Chicken Tenders
—
z
Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup
Cornbread and PB&J Sandwiches
part, for agricultural produc
tion. A native of Connecticut
with fond childhood memo
ries of apple orchards and
cider mills, Mihm decided to
plant a few lesser-known va
rieties and became interested
in learning more about them.
Meanwhile Joshua Fuder,
the UGA Cooperative Exten
sion agent for Cherokee
County, had also purchased a
home with several heirloom
apple trees planted in the
yard. Not knowing much
about apples and feeling both
a professional and personal
obligation to learn more, he
found his way to the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture’s
Plant Genetic Resources
Unit, based in Geneva, N.Y.
“They said, ‘Hey, did you
know there’s a professor
down there who’s working
on this, too?”’ recalled Fuder,
who then tracked down
Mihm and suggested they
collaborate. Armed with a
modest USDA grant, the two
began to search for lost Geor
gia apple varieties, a task that
quickly proved challenging
when you’re talking about
single, lonely trees spread
across the state.
The problem lay in apple
trees’ method of reproduc
tion. Because trees grown
from seed often do not pro
duce the fruit of either parent,
commercial apple trees typi
cally are created by grafting
a cutting (or scion) from the
desired variety to the root-
stock of another variety. So
there were no forgotten draw
ers of old seeds waiting to be
discovered—Fuder and
Mihm would have to exhaust
every connection they had to
find clues. Mihm said he
spent many hours driving
backwoods roads, scanning
the countryside for the occa
sional stand of apple trees.
Meanwhile they were
having better luck turning up
examples of apple varieties
that were not quite lost but
still uncommon—some even
in danger of disappearing.
They pivoted and success
fully filed for a revision of
the USDA grant, with the pri
mary purpose this time being
to create a repository for this
small but growing catalog.
And so was bom the idea for
the Heritage Orchard.
To date, the team has pre
served nearly 140 different
varieties. In March 2020,
they grafted scion wood from
101 of those varieties onto
M7 rootstock, which will re
sult in trees in the just-right
range for height and vigor.
For almost a year the young
trees grew in pots at the
Blairsville station, protected
from hungry deer by an elec
trified fence. Then, on a
beautiful afternoon in early
February, those time-travel
ing trees went in the ground.
“Apples have been part of
this station since it was first
built back in the 1930s,” said
Ray Covington, superintend
ent of the Mountain Research
& Education Center, which
already had hundreds of
apple trees, but only about
eight or nine common culti
vars. “The whole concept of
reviving these old Southern
varieties fits perfectly with
what we try to do up here.”
The orchard is also attract
ing interdisciplinary partners.
Franklin College is repre
sented through Mihm, CAES
through Covington and the
Extension through Fuder and
other agents. Professor Brad
Davis from the College of
Environment and Design is
also on the USDA grant, for
which Mihm serves as prin
cipal investigator.
“It’s just a fantastic col
laboration,” Covington said.
“We’ve got the trees sepa
rated into four general areas
based on their blooming time
and how they respond to dis
ease, and that sets us up to
address some really great re
search questions.”
In March, another batch of
varieties will be grafted onto
rootstock, and those baby
trees will also spend time
growing in pots within their
safe enclosure, waiting to
join their older cousins in the
ground. Within about three
years, the Heritage Apple Or
chard will produce its first
fruit.
As for apple varieties that
have been truly lost, Mihm
and Fuder hope that once
people hear about the Her
itage Orchard, the owners of
those lonely trees will come
to them. And Georgia afi
cionados once again will
have a chance to sample ap
ples their great-great-grand
parents might have once
enjoyed.
“At one time, Habersham
County arguably produced
more apples per capita than
any other part of the coun
try—it was big business,”
said Mihm, who also hopes
the Heritage Orchard pro
vides a boost for the state’s
cider industry, similar to
what’s happened with Geor
gia winemakers. “The Moun
tain Research & Education
Center gets a huge number of
visitors each year. We hope to
have tastings and cider press
ings—we want to have pub
lic events to show people in
this state that they can grow
these apples again after 100
years.”
Attention Veterans!
We are your American Legion!
We are dedicated to:
♦ Veterans
• Emergency assistance for homeless Veterans.
• Coordinating with Home Depot for Veteran related projects.
• Benefits counseling so that Veterans get what they earned.
• Fellowship for Veterans-We have served our country so we understand
what you are feeling.
• Monthly meetings, weekly lunches, participation in community events
throughout the year.
❖ Community
• College scholarships for Pickens County Veterans.
• Scholarships for two high school students each year.
• Youth Sports Sponsorship for 5 teams and 50 baseball players.
• Sponsorship of Scouting at the Senior and Cub levels.
♦ Patriotism
• Dedicated to the preservation of our country, its symbols
and its values.
• Participation in community events and presentation of our flag.
• Instructing in flag etiquette and proper disposal of worn flags.
♦ Remembering the Cost of Freedom
• You know the cost because you helped to pay the bill.
• All gave some. Some gave all.
We know a thing or two, because we have seen a thing or two.
706-253-1715
Contact your
American Legion Post:
i American Legion Post 149
5 P.O. Box 477
Jasper, GA 30143
alpost149@gmail.com
www.americanlegion149.com
Donations are tax deductible.