Orchard restoration project preserves history of apples

By CARLA JIMENEZ and NANCY LOFHOLM
Colorado Public Radio

DENVER (AP) — The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project can be described as many things: an agricultural project, an economic development project, a history project — even an apple scavenger hunt. Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer founded the project in 2014. It has several orchards in Montezuma County. Their own orchard and nursery in McElmo Canyon grows more than 200 different apple varieties. One of their main goals is to preserve every kind of apple grown in Colorado. The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project also uses the history of apples in Colorado as a way to preserve the land and the crops for the future. They plant trees in the hopes that the trees will last a hundred years into the future.