The Sutton Historical Society, Inc. will host Christie Higginbottom, Garden Research Historian, on Tuesday, September 6, at 7 pm in the First Congregational Church, 307 Boston Road, Sutton.  Her presentation entitled,  “An infinite variety of fruit”: Historic New England Apples, should be a New England crowd pleaser.  This program will explore the roles played by apples at the table and on the farm landscape in the past, and will celebrate the revival of interest happening today.  Hundreds of historic apple varieties were born in New England cider orchards from the early 1600s to the late 1800s. These apples comprise an extremely diverse collection with evocative names such as “Roxbury Russet”, “Westfield Seek-No-Further,” “Sheepnose,” “Maiden’s Blush,” “Hubbardston Nonesuch,” and Sutton’s own “Sutton Beauty.” The historic Sutton Beauty variety was cultivated by Stephen Waters in 1757.  New saplings of the Sutton Beauty were recently planted at Sutton Historical Society locations thanks to the efforts of Jon Clements, UMASS Amherst.  The Society is proud to be cultivating such an important part of the town’s history.

Christie  has worked as a costumed interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village since 1981.  She coordinated the historic horticulture program researching, planning and planting the re-created kitchen and flower gardens at the museum’s historic households.  She also supervised the Village’s Herb Garden collection, a garden exhibiting over 300 varieties of historic herbs.    Now retired from full-time work at OSV, she continues to work in costume part-time – most often in the gardens, and to present garden programs for the Village.

Christie lectures at museums and historic sites, garden clubs, historical societies, colleges and libraries.  She writes and consults on historic gardens and their interpretation. She enjoys teaching home gardening classes at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill and the Northeast Organic Farmers Association.

This program is free to all members and the general public of all ages.  Please join us to learn about apple history and to usher in the 2022 apple picking season.