The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit
By Priyanka Kumar
Island Press, 2025
Fruit exploration is more of a passion than a pastime for those of us easily distracted by roadside apple trees, relic farm orchards, or a lone pear tree standing strong where an old farmstead once stood. We often park on the soft shoulder of a gravel road to get a closer look or knock on the door of a complete stranger, seeking permission to snoop around their property when spring fruit tree blossoms catch our eye or when the flashes of colorful fruit dot the trees in autumn. Sometimes it’s completely random and by chance, while other times considerable research leads us down the path.
In “The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit,” Priyanka Kumar recounts her journey of fruit exploration from childhood visits to orchards in her homeland of Himachal Pradesh in northern India to relic orchards of the American Southwest, near her current home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kumar takes us on her journey to discover lost trees and fruit through stories learned from local elders, history thoroughly researched, and the chance encounters made along the way.
Clearly a naturalist at heart, Kumar’s writing includes descriptions of warblers flitting about shrubs, cottonwoods gnawed by beavers, and bear scat along a river trail leading to a relic orchard of an old homestead. Her appreciation of nature is evident and clearly supported by a deep understanding of the science behind the natural world. Her underlying search for rasa, meaning juice in Sanskrit, suggesting “the vital essence of an experience, person, or a work or art,” permeates the book and surfaces regularly with her discoveries, likening to “a hidden spring of joy.”
What I enjoy most about this book is Kumar’s vivid descriptions of the trees, the cultivation practices, the people, and the terrain of the arid Southwest, starkly different from my home in the humid Northeast but somehow very familiar. Her recount of journeys with friends, like Gordon Tooley leading her to the Real orchard or Dave Kenneke and the Chase orchard, sound so similar to me it’s like I’ve met that person before — but the Maine version. “The Light Between Apple Trees” has helped me to realize that fruit exploration and preservation work holds a common thread, spanning across borders and cultures, and connecting us like roots in the soil.
– C.J. Walke
This review was originally published in the spring 2026 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener.