Boulder Apple Tree Project’s Community Grafting Day!

On Saturday April 9th, REACH Lab Members Amy Dunbar-Wallis, Deidre Jaeger, Micaela Seaver, Taylor Hartke and PI LIsa Corwin convened at the CU Boulder greenhouse at 30th street to teach community members how to graft their own apple tree.

This grafting day, which is led annually by Boulder Apple Tree Project Program Manager and REACH Lab Grad Student, Amy Dunbar-Wallis, was the third grafting event held by the project and by far the most successful. Over 25 community members showed up to graft trees and left with their very own apples to plant in their yards across Boulder County! 

The day was made all the more special by a visit from artist Sam Van Aken who showed up to the afternoon grafting event in Lyons CO. Sam uses grafting in his art to create trees that bear fruits of different cultivars and even different species. He explores ideas about sustainability, cultural and agricultural heritage, and community through his work. Sam, in collaboration with the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the Boulder Apple Tree Project, is working to create four multi-grafted apple trees (trees with more than one cultivar of fruit) across Boulder County. One of these trees will sit directly outside of the CU Boulder Art museum adjacent to a walkway frequented by students on their way to study ecology, evolutionary biology, art, and cultural studies.