{"id":27136,"date":"2025-05-28T11:51:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27136"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:41:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:41:39","slug":"fwd-episode-1409-edward-freeman-head-gardener-the-last-apple-tree-1916-2025-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27136","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 1,409: EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE 1916? – 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>Fwd: EPISODE 1,409: EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE 1916? – 2025<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>May 28, 2025 at 11:01:52 AM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com<\/a><\/a>><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>EPISODE 1,409: EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE 1916? – 2025<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>May 26, 2025 at 9:00:38 PM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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EPISODE 1,409:  EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE   1916? – 2025<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
may 26, 2025<\/div>\n
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NOT MUCH OF AN APPLE TREE <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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Not much of a tree,I admit.  More dead than alive.  An apple whose apples are scabby, wormy and small.<\/div>\n
Only one branch is alive, the others have been dead for years. Decades.<\/div>\n

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Edward Freeman bought this 25 acre farm for $2,000 in 1916.   Not much of a farm then and not<\/div>\n
much of a farm now\u2026dominated by one giant swamp and several small swamps. Only one tiny patch<\/div>\n
of good soil while the rest of the land is a glacial dump with many boulders rolled smooth by the ice <\/div>\n
for thousands of years.Edward Freemans family suffers a lot of disapointment .    The dream of a new<\/div>\n
life inCanada had been a nightmare by1916\u2026an 8 year nightmare.  1908 to 1916\u2026tough years.  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Canada was not a pleasant place.  It was on fire\u2026really on fire and Edward Freeman got burned.
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This farm, however. was where<\/div>\n
 the Freeman family rooted themselves and where some of their progeny remain rooted.<\/div>\n

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WHO COULD POSSIBLY BE INTERESTED IN THE SLOW DEATH OF AN APPLE TREE?<\/div>\n

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I think you could.  That tree will soon be gone \u2026 only a memory that will never be replicated.  Never ever?<\/div>\n
Appple trees are like humans that way.   They do not breed true.  When our son Andrew revs up his<\/div>\n
chain saw next week or next  month and the chips start to fly that apple tree will be no longer.  So this story<\/div>\n
will be all that remains.<\/div>\n

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Mygrandfather, Edward Freeman planted this tree around 1920 give or take a few years. I think he was trying <\/div>\n
to recreate hia early year when he was head gardener of Eywood, a country estate\u20261500 acres\u2026in the heart of <\/div>\n
Herefordshire, England.   Apple Country where Red Streak apples, grafted apple trees. were crushed and <\/div>\n
squeezed and aged to produce he best hard apple the world has ever produced.Cider apples are special.    Not cooking apples\u2026.not<\/div>\n
not applesauce apples.   idea apples\u2026.hard apple cider with an alcohol content adored by drinkers some of whom <\/div>\n
drank from crystal glasses and by less sophisticated scrumpy version sold from beneath pub counters in tankards.<\/div>\n

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I never really knew my grandfather except in bits and pieces.   When I remember him best he was an elderly<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

man who dragged his arthritic leg to the woodpile behind the farm house to split kindling for winter fires.  I had no idea<\/p><\/div>\n

what meant to be a head Gardener in England.Oh I knew him.   Like when granddad and mom pinned me<\/div>\n
down in the bedroom beside the attic with a salt and water solution to kill the pin worms of my youth.   Or later when we\u2026.grandfather and me <\/div>\n
shot a porcupine in the big maple tree.  I did not want to do it but  porcupine quills in farm dogs noses were bad he said.<\/div>\n
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Let\u2019s pretend we have the power to recreate Edward Freeman  using the bits and fragments he left behind. <\/div>\n
 Let\u2019s use this old apple tree to take  us back. Both the apple tree and Edward Freeman are worth the time tunnel trip.<\/div>\n
It will take several episodes.  By the time we are done the apple tree will be cut into chord wood some of which will be<\/div>\n
present in the smoke we breath and thereby be a part of us.<\/div>\n

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1916 WAS NOT THE BEGINNING OF THE FREEMAN STORY\u2026FAR FROM IT\u2026.WE MUST GO BACK TO 1871<\/div>\n

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NEXT EPISODE<\/p>\n


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Alan <\/div>\n

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post script;  Warning, do not chew apple seeds .  Why?   because they contain cyanide which is a dangerous poison.<\/div>\n
If you chew between 150 and 1,000 appleseeds you could get very sick.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


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Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: Fwd: EPISODE 1,409: EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE 1916? – 2025 Date: May 28, 2025 at 11:01:52 AM EDT To: john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com> Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: EPISODE 1,409: EDWARD FREEMAN: HEAD GARDENER: THE LAST APPLE TREE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}