When Leon Risenhoover,76, looks out the windows of his Dolores farmhouse, apple trees stretch out before him.
He sees the trees, he sees the fruit yet to be picked, and he sees the history of Montezuma County and a story that can told by the apples themselves.
You see, Risenhoover has trees on his property that were planted in 1906, during a time that trains still trundled into Montezuma County. The area was famous for apples, and trains would haul them to far-off destinations.
“This was supposedly the first Double Red Delicious in the valley,” Risenhoover said during a recent tour of his orchard of towering trees sporting large gnarly trunks with sheep milling about in the background.
This year, there was a late frost, so very few bright red apples dot the trees, and rain meant that Risenhoover was late to pick them this fall. This is the second consecutive year with a late frost. Risenhoover’s crop last year was small, too. This year, yields in the Durango area were down.
Being an apple farmer in Montezuma County isn’t easy, he said. “You get about six years of good crops out of every 10 years.”
This could explain why apples aren’t as abundant as they were in the early 1900s.
“It is too much work for very little return,” Risenhoover said.
Nonetheless, Risenhoover was planning to sell his harvest for about $1 a pound.
He grows the Double Red Delicious, Winesaps, Romes and Golden Delicious.
When asked his favorite, he reached up into some branches.
“The Red Delicious, hands down,” he said.
With a rub on his shirt, the apple took on a shiny glow, and it tasted, well, delicious.
“You see,” he said. “Those red delicious types in the store. They don’t taste anything like that. They are probably a year old in the store.”
In fact, their thick skin and beauty is what earned the Red Delicious such popularity, but their longevity was ultimately their downfall and the reason they have a bad name today.
“You have to get them fresh from the orchard – my orchard,” he said, smiling.
If you go
Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project’s Orchard Social: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Let It Grow, 90 N. Mildred Road, Cortez. Jude Schunemeyer will give an update about the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project. There will be music, an apple press with apple and cider tastings, activities for children and an apple contest.
