John Bunker

• “One thing I’ve noticed is that whether its an old farm or a building in town or an apple variety, if someone like you or me doesn’t take an active interest in protecting and preserving things of value as they age, no one will... These old [apple] varieties are going to fade away and be lost and forgotten if we don’t do something about it.”

• “I don’t consider myself to be better than anybody else for doing it. It’s just that it’s something I CAN do to be of value while I’m here.”

• “Looking for rare apples is really not about finding a particular apple: it’s about looking for an apple...And in some respects it is not even about looking for an apple at all, but instead it is about looking at the apple that is in your yard or down the road and looking at it in a new way. It is about that decision to become more engaged with your environment.”

• “I felt like these trees I was finding in my town, and then eventually all over Maine and other places, were a gift to me by someone whom I had never met, who had no idea who I was, who had no idea that I was ever going to be.”

• “Bunker said between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, "Almost every county from here to Georgia had its own special apples that were unique to that area. And certainly every town had its own unique mix of apples people would grow. I think more and more Americans are seeing that the one-size-fits-all approach is a worn-out model."”

• “I like to think apples in Maine should be like cheeses in France, where you go 10 miles and you get a whole new cheese. In Maine there should be a different cider and apple in every town or county”

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.