18th Century Purity Farm

The next day, I head up to 18th Century Purity Farm in Moosup.  Squaw Rock Road runs along a ridge that overlooks Route I-395.  It is mostly ledge rock and big houses, a strange place for a farm.  Then I come to a small valley that falls away through several terraces.  Each level is planted with apple trees, or blueberry bushes, or strawberries, or asparagus.  Farthest down the hill is a field of potatoes.  The current farm covers 45 acres, but only ten are cultivated.  The rest is woodlot.

JoAnn and Paul Desrochers greet me when I arrive.  JoAnn wears a well-worn, wide-brimmed straw hat and an ample smile.  The pair started Purity Farm in April 1996.  Paul has recently retired, but when I first met him, he worked full time on second shift at a local company that produces high-tech batteries for space vehicles and deep-water submersibles.  The pair share selling duties at ten Farmers Markets each week.

As we walk down the hill to the first terrace, I hear the hum of traffic in the near distance.

“A lot of the original farm -- 100 acres established in 1738 -- is buried under that road,” JoAnn explains, pointing to I-395.  Her family has been growing apples here since the 1870s, but ancestral roots go back even farther: her family arrived in Moosup in 1699.

We arrive at a small orchard.  Several well-spaced rows contain free-standing trees that grow about eight feet tall. "These are the antique varieties we grow," Paul explains, pointing to hand-painted signs under each tree: Baldwin, Arkansas Black, Rambo.  Of the 62 types of apples in the orchard, forty are heirlooms.  An heirloom variety is generally defined as a type of apple grown prior to the 1930s.  A popular heirloom is Red Delicius, introduced from Peru in 1874.  In contrast, there are newer apples such as Gala, a native of New Zealnd that has gained an enthusiastic following since the l970s.