The Artist and the Orchard: A Memoir, by Linda Hoffman

Reviewed by Donald Sutherland

You will never bite into an apple the same way after reading Linda Hoffman’s whimsical, sensual, intimate memoir of her life, eventually forever changed by the entangling life force of an apple orchard.

The book opens with Linda looking at an abandoned apple orchard with raspberry bushes and a run-down farmhouse in Harvard, Massachusetts.

A divorced woman with three children, no knowledge of farming, who, following the suggestion of a female friend, buys the farm. She names it Old Frog Pond Farm & Studio and is determined to face the challenges of growing apples organically without synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

She succeeds with her farm, earning USDA certification as the only pick-your-own organic apple orchard in Massachusetts. Linda accomplishes this feat through many trials, with the constant guidance and encouragement of loved ones and a sage apple-growing advisor. Each challenge nature throws at her becomes a chapter and opens metaphors for life.

In the chapter on pruning, Linda reflects on the regimented act of selectively cutting branches to invigorate fruit bud growth with light and space. 

“Pruning to encourage each tree to reach its fullest potential meant removing a lot of unnecessary wood. This metaphor wasn’t lost on me.  I had given up a lot to change my life.”

Her life is a whimsical journey following graduation from Bryn Mawr College.  She joins a traditional Noh theater company in Kyoto, Japan, with no knowledge of Japanese.  She shares a tub bath with the grandson of the artist Matisse, 23 years her senior, then marries and moves to Massachusetts to raise three children.  In Massachusetts, she pursues her sculpture, gets divorced, and buys an apple orchard. On the farm, she falls in love again and remarries.

It is in the demands of farm life and the apple orchard where all her passions are grafted and interconnected in a community of writers, artists, farmers, and spiritual seekers. Under the experienced guidance of a neighboring orchard manager, Denis Wagner, Linda learns to manage her struggling orchard. She clears and replaces dead and dying trees, prunes branches to maximize fruiting buds, and manages insect pests and soil fertilization with organic sprays. Her approach promotes the biodiversity of life in the soil, and pollinator-friendly ground covers attract a multitude of insects that fertilize apple blossoms.

The book’s narrative follows the rhythms of the orchard’s growing cycles and pulls you into Linda’s zen holistic world tuned to the interplay of the elements of working with nature.

All the natural threats at the orchard from blossom-killing frost, deer and rodent attacks, the bacterium scourge of scab fungus, and maggot flies are dealt with the same resilience and faith she faces in her battle with breast cancer.

Linda survives it all, and she harvests not only apples but the mental sensitivities that develop with the demands of the orchard.     

The book blends those sensitivities into a unique, serene community of people, art, and farm. 

Something we need in today’s turbulent times. https://oldfrogpondfarm.com/