37th Antique Apple Tree Grafting Seminar CAMPTON HILLS, IL: Learn how to grow your own antique apple trees at Garfield Farm Museum’s 37th Antique Apple Tree Grafting Seminar on Sunday, March 1st at 1:30pm. For $40, participants will learn traditional apple grafting techniques and take home three grafts of heirloom varieties to plant in the spring. The seminar takes place at Garfield Farm Museum, located approximately five miles west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. Reservations are required by calling (630) 584-8485 or e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org. For centuries, apple growers have grafted a small branch, or scion, from a favorite apple variety onto rootstock. Because apple trees cross-pollinate, seeds from a favorite apple will not produce fruit identical to the parent. Through grafting, the scion and rootstock grow together to produce fruit identical in taste and characteristics to the original tree. Apple tree expert Dan Bussey leads the seminar and will bring several different antique varieties of scions to graft to root stock. Mr. Bussey has written a 3500-page, seven-volume book documenting thousands of varieties known to have existed in the US. His knowledge of making cider and baking with apples in various combinations comes from being a dedicated hobbyist at an incredibly professional level. He graciously donates his time and grafting materials to make the seminar possible, bringing antique apple variety scions to graft to rootstock and instructing participants on how to care for their grafts until planting. The seminar takes place inside Garfield Farm Museum’s massive 120-year-old 1906 dairy barn, where early March winds are kept at bay. As Mr. Bussey moves from table to table, he demonstrates how to draw a knife through finger-sized scions and rootstock, then deftly wrap the graft using laboratory parafilm and rubber bands instead of traditional grafting wax. Beyond the technical instruction, this seminar offers something rarer today: an act of faith in the future. Deluged by current events, spending an afternoon on a historic farm learning centuries-old methods provides both an escape and a sense of continuity. Participants share an experience with long-gone generations, anticipating the delayed pleasure of apple pies, or taffy apples that they will see grow in four to seven years to come. Joining fellow enthusiasts also counters the social isolation of modern life. Looking out across broad fields toward wooded hills, attendees can sense the quiet serenity of a landscape where bare oaks will soon bud again as another yearly cycle unfolds. There is a $40 donation for the class and reservations are required. Participants are asked to bring a sharp knife for cutting. Call the museum at (630) 584-8485, or email at info@garfieldfarm.org. Garfield Farm Museum is located 5 miles west of Geneva, IL off ILL Rt. 38 on Garfield Road. The 374-acre site is a historically intact former 1840s farm and teamster inn being restored as an 1840s working farm museum by volunteers and donors from around the country. Please email info@garfieldfarm.org or call 630 584-8485 if you have questions. Donations can be mailed to the museum at P.O.Box 403 LaFox, IL 60147 (post mark determines year of gift for tax consideration) or go online to our website www.garfieldfarm.org and click on the Donate button.