Reader’s Corner

In 1972, age twenty-one and a recent college grad, John Bunker bought some land and settled in Palermo, Maine. He built cabins, gardens, a chicken coop, an orchard. He came to know the land, the people, and their stories, and in Not Far From the Tree, he locates his own story in the history of apple growing in Palermo.                                               

Bunker takes us back to the nineteenth century, when “Palermo residents produced practically all their own food” and introduces us to the region’s first growers and apple varieties (which came from a town in what is now Kazakhstan—located incidentally at the same latitude as Palermo). He shares his knowledge about all kinds of deliciously named apples: Winter Banana, Opalescent, Pomme de Neige, Northern Spy. And he goes on to say how, years later, he founded the nursery catalogue Fedco Trees because he “wanted to provide the next generation of trees to continue on after the old orchards were gone.”

Part local history and guidebook, part fireside yarn, the writing is plainspoken and even-keeled, and somewhat freewheeling in form. The book is self-published, and that’s part of its appeal. What makes it truly charming are Bunker’s illustrations, which include detailed drawings of apples and hand-drawn maps showing Palermo residents and visitors where to find particular varieties of apple trees. And there’s more: poems, journal entries, recipes, and self-styled cartoons—together they are John Bunker’s story, which is inextricably linked to place.

For anyone who wonders just what it means to become native to a place, this book is a good place to start.

Copies are available from Fedco, 207-873-7333; directly from the author, .; and from a few Maine bookstores. Contact the author for details. Five dollars from the purchase will be donated to the Palermo Historical Society.

Not Far from the Tree
A Brief History of the Apples and the Orchards of Palermo, Maine
1804 – 2004
Written and Illustrated by John P. Bunker, Jr.

—Erica Dorpalen
Editorial Intern, Orion