While thousands flock to apple orchards around the Tri-State Area each fall, New York City has its own legacy of growing fruit trees, one that’s been quietly thriving in backyards, gardens and public spaces across the boroughs.
Reminders of NYC’s agricultural past
You may spot some rogue berries on your daily walk, a pear tree in someone’s backyard or peaches in a forgotten corner.
At Java Community Garden in Greenpoint, the paw paw trees are reaching maturity and the old fig is covered in fruit.
“They’re pretty tasty. And especially now that like the growing season is kind of extending,” said Brian Henderson, a community gardener.
Fruit trees can be found in Brooklyn’s parks and historical cemeteries. And while foraging is not allowed there, it’s a reminder of the city’s agricultural past, buried under the asphalt.
“Mostly fruit was grown in Brooklyn in like the 1700s for cider making. It was hard to find clean water so everybody was drinking cider,” said artist Sam Van Aken.
“Open Orchard” is part art installation, part history project
One place picking is encouraged is a ferry ride away at an orchard on Governor’s Island.
“The Open Orchard is 102 multi grafted trees that cover the history of fruit growing in New York City. So from pre-European contact to the early 20th century,” said Van Aken, who created the living heirloom display.
Van Aken planted rows of apple, apricot and even almond trees, most of them picked bare by curious park-goers.
“The reason it’s the ‘Open Orchard’ is it’s based on the Lenape philosophy that nobody owns a tree. So everyone is welcome to come pick the fruit, which is why we’re always short on fruit,” he said.
Half art installation, half history project, Van Aken has spent years researching fruit varieties once grown in old orchards in Brooklyn and Queens.
“The 1800s were kind of like the golden age for growing fruit in Brooklyn. They would barge it across the East River into Manhattan, into farmers markets,” he said.
Artist Sam Van Aken planted rows of apple, apricot and even almond trees on Governor’s Island, most of them picked bare by curious park-goers.
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Several dozen of these fruit trees are also now growing in community gardens in the outer boroughs, most of them planted close to where they historically grew.
“Using those maps from New York Public Library, I found out the very street where these varieties originated,” he said. “We placed those trees back into at least the neighborhood, if not on the same street as where they originally were grown.”
Back in Greenpoint, a beach plum at Java Street Community Garden sometimes rewards locals with small fruits.
“Beach plums are like a coastal species. And this is like a region that historically they may have been, or likely would have been,” said Henderson.
It’s one of many varieties distributed through Van Aken’s project.
“To put it back into the neighborhoods so that people are actually tasting the fruit from 200 years ago,” Van Aken said.
The growing movement to revive New York’s fruit growing tradition is a living reminder that some roots still run right beneath our feet.
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