Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Ghost Orchard
    The Ghost Orchard
    The Ghost Orchard
    Ebook167 pages2 hours

    The Ghost Orchard

    By Helen Humphreys

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    For readers of H is for Hawk and The Frozen Thames, The Ghost Orchard is award-winning author Helen Humphreys’ fascinating journey into the secret history of an iconic food. Delving deep into the storied past of the apple in North America, Humphreys explores the intricate link between agriculture, settlement, and human relationships. With her signature insight and exquisite prose, she brings light to such varied topics as how the apple first came across the Atlantic Ocean with a relatively unknown Quaker woman long before the more famed “Johnny Appleseed”; how bountiful Indigenous orchards were targeted to be taken over or eradicated by white settlers and their armies; how the once-17,000 varietals of apple cultivated were catalogued by watercolour artists from the United States’ Department of Pomology;  how apples wove into the life and poetry of Robert Frost; and how Humphreys’ own curiosity was piqued by the Winter Pear Pearmain, believed to be the world’s best tasting apple, which she found growing beside an abandoned cottage not far from her home.

    In telling this hidden history, Humphreys writes movingly about the experience of her research, something she undertook as one of her closest friends was dying. The result is a book that is both personal and universal, combining engaging storytelling, historical detail, and deep emotional insight.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781443451536
    The Ghost Orchard
    Author

    Helen Humphreys

    HELEN HUMPHREYS is an acclaimed and award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a Lambda Literary Award for Fiction and the Toronto Book Award. She has also been a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Trillium Book Award and CBC’s Canada Reads. Her most recent work includes the novel Rabbit Foot Bill and the memoir And a Dog Called Fig. The recipient of the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence, Helen Humphreys lives in Kingston, Ontario. 

    Read more from Helen Humphreys

    Related to The Ghost Orchard

    Related ebooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Plants We Love

      Aug 26, 2021

      Plants We Love
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Beautiful Yarn

      Oct 19, 2023

      A Beautiful Yarn
      5 min read

    • Article

      Clippings

      Feb 17, 2022

      Clippings
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sleepless Night

      Nov 11, 2021

      Sleepless Night
      5 min read

    • Article

      Make Your Garden A Wild Haven

      Mar 10, 2022

      Make Your Garden A Wild Haven
      4 min read

    • Article

      Minor Aesthetics: On Helen DeWitt’s ‘The English Understand Wool’

      Nov 17, 2022

      The story that 'The English Understand Wool' tells is a DeWittian distillate. The post Minor Aesthetics: On Helen DeWitt’s ‘The English Understand Wool’ appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Apples An American Classic

      Nov 30, 2018

      Apples An American Classic
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Oranges

      Jul 24, 2022

      Sweet Oranges
      2 min read

    • Article

      Amazing Heirloom Melons

      Feb 7, 2020

      Amazing Heirloom Melons
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Cherries

      Nov 27, 2022

      When I was a boy, my father brought home a box of “Ron’s Seedling” cherries every year, in those exciting weeks before the Christmas holidays. He probably thought that this big box would last for weeks. But my brother and I would sit on the floor in

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hardy Apples

      Jan 13, 2023

      Hardy Apples
      8 min read

    • Article

      National Cherry Day

      Jul 13, 2021

      THIS Friday (16 July) is National Cherry Day – celebrating not the Japanese flowering cherries, but the various types of fruiting cherry. If you’re like me, you can scoff juicy red cherries almost to the point of feeling ill! They have an amazing ble

      4 min read

    • Article

      Strawberries

      Nov 28, 2021

      Strawberries
      2 min read

    • Article

      Five-lobed Maple

      Apr 20, 2023

      Five-lobed Maple
      4 min read

    • Article

      Last Of The Summer Pears

      Nov 3, 2021

      MANY years ago, in the middle of an especially enjoyable picnic (no rain, no whingeing children, no wasps), a Spanish friend suddenly exclaimed ‘Esta es la pera!’, or ‘This is the pear!’, explaining afterwards that his countrymen, presumably because

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Pawpaw Pusher

      Jan 26, 2021

      The Pawpaw Pusher
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Gardener’s Miscellany

      Oct 19, 2021

      Facts about a flavoursome fruit collective THE old joke goes: ‘What’s black, white and red all over?’ Answer: A newspaper, of course! (For ‘red’ read ‘read’)! This leads me on, beautifully, to this week’s subject of black, white and red…currants. The

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Cherry Plum On Top

      Jun 24, 2020

      The Cherry Plum On Top
      4 min read

    • Article

      Pineapples

      Jan 29, 2023

      Pineapples
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ripe For The PICKING

      Sep 11, 2019

      Ripe For The PICKING
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Plentiful Persimmon

      Feb 27, 2019

      The Plentiful Persimmon
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Ghost Orchard

    3.5/5

    9 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Ghost Orchard - Helen Humphreys

      bbook_preview_excerpt.htmlZr8v~\V$LTjZ4%D7" M_CnIvͣIsݒSJ&|]o.][_׷7]bݪmSi۪NQwzg_aluu~Vom22:fZm}oBʶOiUʩm4%1Iŷ?Ǜǫ+uw[?<J}b+mQꮫMPU)!Ơ6^Eg}2xs&0:ov>ľziuN=^~\=_<^<IP8Ŕ ХWyU=Z߼[n5 p`us>\=<ޝ8 4ѻ!ֲ'-rlE['Ǐ]23JOb#`U+6jK8;"K1Hw 15 U @L݅3oq۟99Lqb S$=Ȼ5a,28gC\)$Bc|S9"lV8;?@B l4>to)Z:[cTM#S:s} Ko3߽&2y\x[DAkYlMm$ߙ4xt |^;S`PAhfE4K*(2hFޓs# K\]Rp/N;h"N8C7#FXKoXCk0B GQ:Zhl۳M\c10)C5HF@?R`/! P K9 KCԓ1y;J/{KOD7 <`X,[7+z*I7o]PW'kzKǔA5~N!˙jVG8yoCV ĮQFR>yȕzXCy8W>EILNO8)4fZT)@By_}&&?#EiȂQ6[wE8,5&%NdN'rX-bBse@,l2tp.sړJoA-Gz|d0~tQ JzsP(z[rK0B"6ֲ%'t I&)_S4JCJFD"JdEJW0cI:UTv] 4Uz ҴzJw'J \< ;Z 6L pL')akޏHP S%#rh 7: |Y3d.aяF< s5[>Hz(0b^iq@E0Ѩc=t3{1&HCԤm@ʖ#Wl\8:χ "8>8IDDt%@Dnus=gD*B6 ){]AjT},J q@hD8r 5F# hr"__­mUE'5AāUJ510rJr3M œRKE5B/IF%P")ni.`31j!KFR!ȑO)DgYmPRO#P;Ԓ"=FfIXbUgBI::f"T.I5F1SJLICvR@Ƅߕ&9.h|4TАeB3&OQ2w{%ZPuf)ja&ȔqyjF hXsnq,rRY|AAX"gUeU <9Tx䴀+crנvC]& !1jgYyʩnJMHp+M[SG[6NRj6m(TŬim@w̅ap\'jql3@qRQ  zfl{!=Rnд5ʮ`GpT;B4T&_̦; QGvigI [jA]6 ܦ.Is75cYo5R댓F6"ڰC)7A 'r{dEr0Q:y"Lo\d16uÛ bv.(>QP>'8! dr&:aI}8iZh} P "6eFCudQI2~*bKG-wj $*)0E~V>p5SF&pc b3gq u|a]%~diϳ# 쥎Ќfg;Ts(r4:c~GKp, f$Ir0A,J^ ԮMYi`N]0K5Ǥ#}j<8"$`h, t!DK-1`\ xZt÷ }=j"!!lROkxvDvZ}* W#)k=n~ fo4ޟ8bPAZꌗ,OD$? BZS#ǻz#s݂yNm\9 g\%T$Ů2m%6T:)Ęj;Yp9y57܀^@m3f>tnONJS;%pg9Jncl-=Gك Ɩutͷ/Bg2Y~B5m6D98s'&~fCGOj3!N)r ?Rg <[fpR;1vM0#l {rȚؘ=z  .bY;W~n<<<y=5U!ic˲UqIa1M5rYHc7DZK,L2~Oa<7O,~eɃѧt%vCEluYʅ}U\ xӭC79۰ N›o^Wdt7$oe^ݢrb38@ ),3_۞ gэD{|#ӏ3s^s6ыS H [ql^U&b``F tpu\=W[L"摎w1ҵGJ+gO(+7m(D_i=}l'0 ]KժDf~7|᜚nI<}kpt)ء z1}f Q9onUfs|/+O!3ޜ/N[QnYii.h!hҬ?HKC邈FiO*-w*9WyOG.q0.P HLZ>L$utR5e+
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1