Queens' modern-day Johnny Appleseed
Photo credit: Charles Eckert | Erik Baard, founder of Newtown Pippin Restoration and Celebration, examines the apple saplings at the public apple orchard on Randall's Island Varieties. (Dec. 8, 2011)
Flushing native Erik Baard is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed.
Baard has planted apple tree saplings in parks across the city for the past three years in hopes of restoring New York's apple orchards.
Baard, a writer and founder of the Long Island City Boat House, is changing course this year. He is planting 150 saplings of Malus sieversii -- the original ancestor of all great American...
