Orchards and Gardens: Agricultural Innovation

Orchards and Gardens: Agricultural Innovation. Roxbury Heritage State Park. , Beginning in the 1630s, small farms were established in the neighborhood around the Meetinghouse. Each house had a kitchen garden, where the women and children grew vegetables and herbs. Families also provided their own milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and meat. "Housekeeping" included the heard work of processing the family's food. , One of the earliest local crops was a new variety of apple - the Roxbury Russet. Crips and tart, it made excellent cider and pies. By the 1800s, Roxbury and Dorchester were famous for their orchards. Prosperous local farmers advanced the science of agriculture by perfecting new varieties of fruit. It is here in Roxbury that Enoch Bartlett popularized the Bartlett pear. , ( photo captions ) , , An Orchard in Your Backyard This image conveys the scale of the orchards that existed here in the 1760s. , , Botanical Specimens On the left, a Bartlett pear, on the right, a Roxbury Russet. These illustrations were commissioned by the United States Department of Agriculture to document the wide variety of fruits and vegetables in the expanding agricultural market.