by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

It’s pretty rare to be the “rarest” of anything but there’s a little apple and pear orchard on a sideroad outside of Dobbinton in Bruce County that has been named “Rarest Orchard in Canada.”
It earned that title from the University of Guelph for having the largest collection of heritage apple and pear varieties, many of which were bred in Canada in the 1800s. Owners Bill O’Keefe and son Sean with wife Cathy, each have a specific skill set to run O'Keefe Grange as a business, selling apples, cider and trees. Yet it all started with Bill’s passion for researching, collecting and propagating rare apple trees.
“We have found trees that were thought extinct!” says Bill, now aging out of manual labour as he cares for his ailing wife. He walks around with a notebook, where he records all the info on each tree and the rare varieties he is still searching for! Most of the knowledge is in his head for he has a story to go with each variety. 
The trees thought extinct were Autumn Grey, Milfor and Glenton. Autumn Grey was developed in Markham sometime in the 1900s. Glenton was developed in 1909 for commercial use. “There were thousands of these trees at one time and now we have the only one left in Canada,” says Bill. “At least we think so. There could be one in someone’s else’s orchard but when properties change hands, the knowledge of tree varieties often goes with it.”
Another tree on the property thought to be extinct is called Belliveau. It had been the subject of a study and paper for the Oxford Food Symposium because this tree was important to the Acadians and their lifestyle. 
When I ask Bill what he thinks of all this, he takes a minute to think. “Well, it wasn’t my intent when I started this orchard,” he says. “I just wanted a few varieties of rare apple trees.” Now, finding rare apple trees is a full-blown addiction for Bill. Once found, he can start new trees by grafting scions of these rare varieties onto rootstock.
Customers are keen on preserving these heritage varieties as well. Each year, the family hosts apple tasting events where, using a “passport”, visitors can record how the apples taste by checking off a list of tastes that include strawberry, licorice and carmamel. Then, you can order that tree variety for pickup the next year (scions are harvested in the winter and the process takes time). 
The taste-testings are quite popular. Last year, there were over 120 varieties in the store and sometimes, a customer tries an apple and orders the tree variety it came from. Tree sales are a big part of the O'Keefe Grange business model. 
I asked Bill, Sean and Cathy what their favourite varieties were and why. They didn't want to pick just one. However, at my insistence Cathy chose Florina because it has notes of bubblegum flavour. Then she quickly added Fenouillet de Ribouts because it’s “juicy with so much flavour” and has a russet-like skin. “Normally I don’t like russets but this one is sweet, not dry.”
Bill chose Fryburg which is named after General Fryburg who was the “most wounded general in battle.” He says it has a peach flavour “with notes of licorice as the apple ages.” Bill explained that apples are living, breathing things. They take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide via lentils (little white dots) on the apple skin. “So how an apple tastes today is not exactly how it will taste tomorrow.”
Finally, Sean had to weigh in and he chose Starsong. Grabbing an apple he showed the proper way to test an apple which is to start with bits of the skin to see what the skin tastes like. Then he bites into the flesh and finally, bigger bites into the whole apple. Tasting an apple should be an experience, not a few quick bites before you toss the core. Watching Sean taste his apple was an experience in itself. He leaned into it, closing his eyes, chewing slowly as he savoured the flavours and tried to name them with words. Sean took a few bites before he came out with “hard, crispy, juicy, sweet with notes of caramel and tropical fruit.”
Sean is big into the flavour because his passion at O'Keefe Grange is making cider with blends of seven to 20 apples. His goal is to combine sweetness with tartness, with the right tannin notes, so you feel the cider on your tongue and the back of your cheeks. “I don’t think you can make a traditional cider without all these different kinds of apples,” he says. He wants his cider flavours to linger but not have a disagreeable aftertaste. 
Sean and Cathy also do the bulk of tree maintenance including pruning, harvesting and setting up the store. Bill admits the orchard got away from him a little bit these past years. So having Sean and Cathy working full-time in the family business is a perfect trio: Bill the researcher and storyteller; Sean the muscle and cider-maker and Cathy the organizer, manager and not afraid of hard work herself. The orchard is organic, with no pesticides, so the apples aren’t all blemish-free, but the ones sold in the store are handpicked and hand washed. 
Moving forward, the family has celebrated their “rarest orchard in Canada” with a colourful sign on the road. The younger generation has lots of goals for their business while Bill, well, he isn’t done searching for rare varieties yet.
He is specifically researching Canadian-heritage varieties such as Roothouse Red, which was found on St. Joseph's Island which is north of Manitoulin Island. There, in an orchard that belonged to David Tate, they found the variety which is a treasure because it tastes like black cherries.
Right now, Bill is hot on the tracks of a variety called Peartosh. “It was developed in Ottawa at an experimental station and no one has seen it since,” says Bill. Could this be the rarest of the rare trees? The O’Keefes have over 600 varieties at their orchard right now so surely there is room for one more. ◊