John Bunker

Black Oxford apple, first discovered in Maine in 1790 (Pomological watercolor from 1913)

John Bunker is an American orchardist, pomologist, and "apple explorer," an expert on American apples and their history. For most of his life, he has worked to preserve rare old apple varieties from across Maine and the New England region.

Quotes

• One thing I’ve noticed is that whether its an old farm or a building in town or an apple variety, if someone like you or me doesn’t take an active interest in protecting and preserving things of value as they age, no one will... These old [apple] varieties are going to fade away and be lost and forgotten if we don’t do something about it.
  • Quoted in "John Bunker: To Be of Value While I’m Here" in Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Community (1999).

• I don’t consider myself to be better than anybody else for doing it. It’s just that it’s something I CAN do to be of value while I’m here.
  • Quoted in "John Bunker: To Be of Value While I’m Here" in Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Community (1999).

• Where we are is our heritage.
  • Quoted in "Beyond the McIntosh" The Atlantic (May, 2008)

• Looking for rare apples is really not about finding a particular apple: it’s about looking for an apple...And in some respects it is not even about looking for an apple at all, but instead it is about looking at the apple that is in your yard or down the road and looking at it in a new way. It is about that decision to become more engaged with your environment.
  • Quoted in "Apple Culture: Sleuths encouraged to hunt for Maine’s lost apples" Portland Press Herald (September 20, 2017)

• I felt like these trees I was finding in my town, and then eventually all over Maine and other places, were a gift to me by someone whom I had never met, who had no idea who I was, who had no idea that I was ever going to be.
  • Quoted in "Why Your Supermarket Sells Only 5 Kinds of Apples" Mother Jones (April, 2013).

• I got to come to Earth and have this amazing experience of all these trees that were grown and bearing, and all these old-timers who would take me out into their fields and show me things and take me on trips down these old roads. And I would knock on somebody’s door, and the next thing you know I’m eating with them. It was like gift after gift after gift. And I started thinking, do I have any responsibilities with this? Or do I just soak it up and let it go?
  • Quoted in "Why Your Supermarket Sells Only 5 Kinds of Apples" Mother Jones (April, 2013).

• Bunker said between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, "Almost every county from here to Georgia had its own special apples that were unique to that area. And certainly every town had its own unique mix of apples people would grow. I think more and more Americans are seeing that the one-size-fits-all approach is a worn-out model."
  • Quoted in "DNA testing sheds light on the vast, mysterious world of heirloom apples" Portland Press Herald (September 25, 2022).

• I like to think apples in Maine should be like cheeses in France, where you go 10 miles and you get a whole new cheese. In Maine there should be a different cider and apple in every town or county
  • Quoted in "DNA testing sheds light on the vast, mysterious world of heirloom apples" Portland Press Herald (September 25, 2022).