BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 16, 2025
When Claus Hamann goes out to his Orland orchard, he always brings his clippers. That’s because he has a lot of pruning to do: his fruit trees are kept short and trained to grow flat along cables. Hamann, a retired physician, started the first of his three orchard plots after inheriting some old apple trees upon moving in a decade ago. Now he has around 250 two-dimensional trees, including apples, pears, peaches, quince and elderberry. Called “espalier,” the ancient method he uses to train them lets him grow numerous varieties of fruit close together in a small space, keeps them easy to maintain, makes harvesting simple and is ergonomic to work with as he ages.