Lost and found

Happy Colorado Sunday, friends.

This has been a particularly blissful autumn (and I know, I just jinxed us all by saying it), the temperate days a lovely invitation to take a walk around and just observe.

I’ve been a bit obsessed by the scraggly apple trees along my walking routes, wondering what magic has allowed them to survive and thrive, and this year in particular, put out staggering amounts of fruit. These are old trees, not some twee varieties grafted up to appeal to the eyes of supermarket shoppers or factory orchards that value refrigerator hardiness over flavor. I often wonder where they came from, and I’m excited to occasionally see trees in my neighborhood that have been inventoried and tagged by the Boulder Apple Tree Project, which hopes to better understand the genetics of the most resilient trees in our county.

It’s that kind of work that led to the rescue of the Colorado Orange apple. In this week’s cover story Sue McMillin explains how a single tree in Fremont County has led to a kind of orchard renaissance for a variety of fruit that was economically important back in the day.

The Cover Story

Secrets of the Colorado Orange apple starting to be revealed

When I read The Sun’s story five years ago about the Colorado Orange apple, I was intrigued because I live in Fremont County, where that heritage apple originated and where that last tree was discovered. The precise location of the tree was a deeply held secret until the tree died and nobody had to worry about people searching for it. Turns out it was only a few miles from my house.

But now there are new Colorado Orange apple trees popping up in Fremont County and around the state, and this year the first known harvest of a few apples is taking place.

It was a joy to talk to the people who made that happen because they are passionate about what they do. Jude Schuenemeyer, whose grafts led to the trees being on the market, and Steve Ela, who was beginning to taste test the first couple dozen apples appearing at his Hotchkiss orchard, were more than willing to talk about the Colorado Orange and the revival of heritage apples.

It might not turn out to be the tastiest eating apple — or maybe it will, the verdict isn’t in. But it sure was fun to write about its rebirth.

READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE

The Colorado Lens

People make the place and our visual journalists encountered some highly compelling characters in their travels last week.

Flavor of the Week

Sharing Denver’s best with the rest of the world

Colorado knows The Wolf’s Tailor is good — that’s why you’d be wise to get a reservation in advance. The Michelin Guide knows it’s good — that’s why they awarded it one star and a green star for sustainability. James Beard knows it’s good — that’s why Kelly and Erika Whitaker won the Outstanding Restaurateur Award in 2024 for the eateries under their umbrella.

Surely it’s time for more everyday foodies to start catching on, right?

Last weekend was a chance to find out. Chef de cuisine Taylor Stark headed to the desert to join acclaimed chef Angelo Sosa at his J.W. Marriott restaurant Kembara in Scottsdale, Arizona, for an S. Pellegrino-sponsored event, A Taste of Mentorship.

Stark, along with his mentee chef Caleb Rocha, collaborated with Sosa, a “Top Chef” alum, and his mentee, Kembara’s chef de cuisine Penny Tagliarina, to create an eight-course menu featuring their interpretations of Asian classics in an intimate dining experience.

And while the focus of the evening was on how chefs can bring up young talent in the culinary world, I couldn’t help but notice a discrete sous chef in the kitchen: Colorado.

Thanks to Stark’s hardline dedication to sustainability, many of his dishes had a bit of Colorado in them, from bison strip loin sourced from local farms and ranches to spruce tips cultivated at high altitude during the summer.

Stark ended the night by thanking everyone for the rare opportunity to take his food out of Denver. The Arizonans got to see how “transformative” and “powerful,” as Sosa described it, the Wolf’s Tailor is. But as I mentioned, we here in Colorado already knew that.

The Wolf’s Tailor is located at 4058 Tejon St., Denver, 80211. It’s open 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Be smart and make a reservation. thewolfstailor.com

SunLit: Sneak Peek

In “Homestead,” a plot of frontier land leads to a quick courtship

EXCERPT: Author Melinda Moustakis’ debut novel “Homestead,” a finalist for the Colorado Book Awards, calls on her Alaskan roots and family history to create a stunning portrait of the everyday challenges of building a life and a relationship from a tract of government-issued land on the frontier. Her excerpt introduces the main characters, Lawrence and Marie, as well as the wilderness they will call home and the straightforward beginning of their connection.

READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT

THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Moustakis’ first book, the short story collection “Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories” told tales of three generations of this same homesteading family. For her first novel, she decided to zero in on one of those generations and tell their origin story. Here’s a portion of her Q&A:

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

Melinda Moustakis: “Homestead” was inspired by my maternal grandparents, who met in Anchorage and very quickly married and lived on an old school bus on 150 acres of a homestead claim in Point MacKenzie through their first winter waiting to build a cabin. The book takes place between 1956 and 1959. My grandmother was from Texas and met my grandfather on a trip to Anchorage while visiting her sister. They were married for 50 years, which I could wrap my head around, but what I could not imagine was the everydayness of being married to a practical stranger and living on a bus in the first winter of a marriage.

So the project came out of the question of how to survive one day at a time.

READ THE INTERVIEW WITH MELINDA MOUSTAKIS

LISTEN TO A PODCAST WITH THE AUTHOR

Sunday Reading List

A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.

🌞 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump rallied Friday in Aurora — near the airport, not near the apartment complex he’s made inflammatory remarks about — his first nonfundraising visit to Colorado in nearly five years. He used the event to attack Democrats on immigration and unveil a new national deportation plan focused on gang members, calling for the death penalty to be leveled against anyone living in the U.S. illegally who kills an American citizen. Jesse Paul and Brian Eason were on the scene.

🌞 The Montezuma County sheriff specifically told people upset about a fence being built around 1,400 acres inside the San Juan National Forest not to take down the barbed wire. But the good people of Mancos weren’t in a mood to let a fringe group called Free Land Holders lay claim to public lands. Jason Blevins and Benjamin Brewer heard arguments from both camps.

🌞 What looked like a routine notice about a trail closure on Boulder County Open Space served up some real drama in the story of a bald eagle’s nest that was struck by lightning. Michael Booth got hold of the video of the incident.

🌞 If you’re like me, your cell phone lit up Friday morning with a message that your general election ballot was on the way. There’s a lot to contemplate before you return your voted ballot to be counted. Check out our Voter Guide, which, among other things, has stories about all 14 statewide ballot measures and helpful hints for making sure your ballot gets back to the clerk on time.

🌞 It’s been 40 years since the state hammered out an agreement managing exactly how much water suburbs including Castle Rock and Parker could take from the aquifer flowing below the towns. A change in the way that total is measured sent the towns to the state Supreme Court, and as Jerd Smith reports, ripples from the decision could travel far beyond Douglas County.

🌞 I love stories about cooperation. This tale by Jason Blevins, about how cavers are working with biologists to slow the spread of deadly white-nose syndrome among bats that roost in Colorado, has a particularly hopeful tone.

🌞I also love short stories. Which is why I was excited to read 10 six-word mysteries that will be advanced to the Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America contest. Let me know if you can guess which one was penned by a professional headline writer.

Thanks for hanging out with us this morning, friends. We’ll see you back here next Colorado Sunday.

— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing [email protected].

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