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Show f issi-v-. :r by NANCY DUNCAN Photos by Jot Doane fV. ' k . . n AV V ;S fJm. ,rf- 0 - COUNTRY 'w" I - v; a. werent for a turn bf misfortune back in the early 1960s, the Apple Hill region of northern California might have been called Pear Hill instead. But when ' Night decimated the pear orchards, enter-- . prising farmers switched to apple production, ." : , and the area is now renowned for its apples and apple products. Located in the hills along Highway 50 in i f; I 1 Dorado County east of Sacramento. this .. slice of American pie includes dozens. of ranches, orchards, and scenic, meandering ' roads evefy foil by visitors from as for awayas Sad Francisco. It began humbly enough in 1 95 1 , when ' Floyd Bolster retired bq Camino (pop. 1,100) 1 to buy a ranch with 0 acres of apple trees, fulfilling hjs dream to be a former. Bolster died six years later, but his sop, Gene, then took oyer. lit 1964, after' the peat .blight devastated that focal! crop, he and 1 6 other ranchera set up the Apple Hill Growers Association to V market themselves and their V o' ' produce. : v Today, the group includes about 50 ranchers producing grapes, berries, pears : again), pumpkins, Christmas trees, wines, apples, pes, hreads, jellies, and crafts, among other icems-- aU sold directly MandGrvaninx. from die forms. Local apples include many antique and Oriental varieties ..? seldom found in stores. ; Last year, local growers produced ' more than 9,300 tons of apples and 2,494 tens of pears (down from 52,000 tons before the blight). Residents Bertie and Eugene .Larsen lived dirough the changes' having been, fruit farmers all of. their 5 1 married yon. ; ' ; "In l952, 1 learned to pack pears , 26 days in a row, 12 hours a day. I was three months pregnant lifting . ' 50 pound boxes of fruit; says V i ; ; Bertie with a laugh. We didn't f!;--- . have time rosituwnd and ' V if wf wanted to work the fond; if had to be done. S home- .; : , Mygreat-grandfathsteaded this land, says ugene of OS;-- g - - w Mkii Pag I .Amef icafl'i-ProiFil. : . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . J. iiv. wonder;, . . ; cr . . ' r - - ! , ' fit, if 'A.""- - cr .i & sV Jfc ifv iV 'VVV well-travel- ed . . , V - If it i , i. ii iL i hefty output amargad foam tha aahas of a paar Might hi tha the more thap 150 acres comprising IfM. the family ploc. We ve been here ftir sixgenerations. The Larsen ranch includes fruit fnxna l9th-centuRhode Island Greening apple tree,' which still yields fruit.Before the Larsens cune, the tree was planted by an old gold miner," Bertie adds, ' After graduating from high school in 1950, Eugene fell inro forming. My uncle sold me a piece of ground," he says. You dont anticipate forming when days, then you wtxk some moire.. you stare oiit. You work . The region offers ocher attractions as welL High Hill Ranch has a large pond where visitoti o1 Iced ducks, fish for traufc and look over a unfoue collection of ; 200 apple peelers. "My dad collected them," lays Jetty Visman, owner of the ranch. Moft date from the erly l850s." ;. The Larjms offer their own attraaion: the Utsen Pioneer Farm Museum Generations of fonbily and focal histbty are delayed here, including a fog obin, ' .. covered wagon, antique fom eqfopfoent. dollhouses, and more..- -; Growers still face stiff competition , m. from Washington state applei but say' their tub soil and long "chilling season,. in which the trees are dormant, results ' ; in tastier fruits, The Apple Hill region There must be something to that, lies about 50 miles east judging by the number of visitors, who of Sacramento, in the visit Apple Hill every summer and foll foothills of the Sierra displacing the pony express riders whose Nevada, roughly an nul once passed through pare of the ranch.' hour's drive east . Floyd Bolster bought 50 years ago. of Sacramento, on U.S.High- Daman if 4 fmlanct uriitr ftm jj Nancy : way.S3- Diamond Springs Calif ; ry 12-ho- ur - . . GETTING THERE... ' |