Felix Gillet Institute

Buerre Gris (aka Bouere de Roy)

 The perpetuation of some of the rarest unknown California fruit is the aim of this Institute developed by Amigo Cantisano, Jennifer Bliss, Adam Nuber and Abby Shinn.  Recently, I went to visit Amigo and see one of the sights where the fruit have survived without any special treatment for over 100 years.  Thanks to their efforts some old varieties of fruits that have become nearly extinct will have a second chance.  I visited Malakoff Diggins State Park which consists of an old town, once called North Bloomfield, with restored buildings and also the sight of the largest hydraulic mine in the world.  On the San Juan Ridge in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the gold miners used large water canons called monitors to wash away the mountainsides.  This led to extreme environmental degradation that resulted in the first environmental law to be enacted in the United States.

I was given a tour of the park by Amigo, who pointed out all of the apple, pear, and walnut trees that have survived around the old homesteads and public buildings in the park.  Many of these fruits and nuts were originally brought from France and other parts of the world. They were bred and  cultivated by Felix Gillet at his Nevada City nursery. Born in France, Gillet became a naturalized citizen in 1866 and soon thereafter set up a 16 acre farm of his own.  He spent $3000 ($50,000 in today's money!) importing fruit and nut trees, which was not only risky due to the travel distance but also because he had no guarantee that the plants would survive in their new environment.    By 1871, he had set up one of the first fruit and nut nurseries on the West coast.  It is amazing that he was not only successful, he eventually supplied the stock of Franquette, Mayette, and other walnut varieties that became the cultivars for California walnut farms.  He also crossed French prune plum varieties with wild plums to make them more drought tolerant.  This allowed for more versatile growing conditions and was a big step in the expanse of the prune market which, although highly prized at the time especially for imports, has all but disappeared.    If that weren't enough, he supplied the plant material for the development of fruit industries in California and the Pacific Northwest, including Almonds, Walnuts, Filberts, Chestnuts, Cherries, Apples, Pears, Prunes, Wine Grapes, Table Grapes, Raspberries, and Strawberries.  Thousands of plants that are used today in agriculture and horticulture were bred by Gillet at his nursery.  The California agriculture industry would not be what is today if not for him.  On top of all of that, the wine grapes that now make up California's massive wine economy were brought here by Gillet.  At one time his catalog had over 200 varieties of wine and table grapes!

Selecting for Genetic Superiority

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Gillet was his talent for selecting for very hardy genetics.  He was planting in relatively poor soil, grafting onto wild rootstock and  was able to choose plants that were superior.  Many of these trees  still exist today on old homesteads in the Sierra Nevada, up to 5500 feet in elevation, and have thrived in very difficult conditions, even "re-wilding"in the abandoned orchards.   They have lived through snow, frosts, heavy rains, and drought yet still produce large crops of fruit on disease free trees.  With all of the problems we have with disease today, the need for genetic superiority is great.  In this respect, the value of a 130 year old cherry tree is beyond measure. Only the strongest of the species survive to reproduce.  The practice of breeding, observing, and selecting takes years with no guaranteed results.  Gillet clearly had a gift for picking the best of the genetics and breeding extremely hardy cultivars.  He then went on to apply this knowledge to strawberries, at one point cultivating 48 types, and also writing a booklet about 'fragriculture', the breeding of strawberries.  Prunes then became his focus and he introduced a large freestone prune plum called Claraic Mammoth. He crossed this old French variety with wild plums to make them more drought tolerant. His final contribution was the release of two new filbert varieties, one of which is the Barcelona and now makes up 98% of the nation's filbert industry. 

Apples growing on 100 year old tree






Finding, Recording, and Gathering

Amigo discovered the first trees in an old abandoned orchard in the early seventies.  Since then he has slowly put together data of locations and attempted to identify as many varieties as possible.  This is a  monumental task given how many trees were planted from Gillet's nursery not only in Nevada City, but surrounding towns and counties.  There are places being discovered all the time and Amigo has said that they are always getting calls about new locations that they do not have the time to check out.  The work of identifying, recording, and filing the data for different species and varieties is a long process as many of them exist only in the old catalogs or perhaps old agricultural publications.  The Institute has just raised over $33,000 through Barnraiser to plant a fruit and nut Mother Orchard on a one acre site at Heaven and Earth Farm in the Sierra Foothills.  The site will expand to more than three acres and include many other individual trees, grapes, and roses that are in need of preservation and propagation.