Conservancy seeking volunteers to help prune apple trees in Murrysville

Westmoreland Conservancy officials are looking for a few good apples, so they can create a whole bunch more.

The metaphorical “few good apples” would be additional volunteers to help with a Feb. 22 apple-tree pruning session at the Conservancy’s Morosini Reserve in southeast Murrysville.

“This will be our third time doing it,” Westmoreland Conservancy President Shelly Tichy said. “We do it every February.”

During the cold months of the year, sap travels down closer to the roots of the apple trees, “so when you prune them this time of year, they don’t ‘bleed’ nearly as much,” Tichy said.

The past two years, the pruning has had the desired effect.

“Those trees flowered better than they had in who knows how many years,” Tichy said. “These are old varieties, and now they produce beautifully.”

The apple trees date back to the farm’s origins with the Morosini family.

“Back in the 1920s, ’30s, ’40s, they had livestock — cows, pigs, chickens — and they’d planted the apple trees for feed,” Tichy said. “So there are large blocks of these trees, and we’re just trying to rehabilitate them.”

While the apples are mostly serving as a snack for the local wildlife, Tichy said Conservancy board member and Morosini Reserve Committee co-chair Rob Malley has a more lofty culinary goal for the trees’ bounty.

“He said once we get enough, we might be able to do a project like making apple butter,” she said.

For now, Conservancy officials are simply looking for some additional volunteers to help with the pruning, which will take place 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the reserve, off of Morosini Farm Court in Murrysville.

For more, see the event page on Facebook by searching “Apple Tree Rehab & Restoration.”