Jude Schuenemeyer

Co-director of the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project

Montezuma, Colorado

October 14th, 2025

“We work against the cultural forgetting of what happened,” Jude Schuenemeyer tells the westies in his gentle, assured voice as we crest a muddy hill and look out at hundreds of baby apple trees. They are propped up by wooden stakes and, on occasion, encased in white plastic tubes. These trees are what Jude and his wife, Addie are trying to remember through their organization, Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project. They work unceasingly to preserve old varieties of apples that have been forgotten as agriculture has become more monocrop-centered. All these varieties of apples are called cultivars, selected for a specific trait like ripening early in mid-summer or ripening late in winter to increase the harvest period in a pre-refrigeration age.

Jude tells us about a time when hundreds of apple cultivars thrived in the high altitude orchards of the Montezuma Valley. Now, they are preserved in old gnarled apple trees interspersed throughout the valley. Jude uses a grafting technique to grow new clones of these old trees.

Jude invited us to pick some apples from the restoration project, and the westies enjoyed scurrying up and down branches and jumping to grab apples. We munched on them while we ate with Jude and sipped on delicious apple and peach juices. Jude inspired us with his quiet determination to see more apple cultivars and his commitment to restoration work.

by Jackson Garrison