Tree of 40 Fruit

A Tree of 40 Fruit is one of a series of fruit trees created by the Syracuse University associate professor Sam Van Aken using the technique of grafting. Each tree produces forty types of stone fruit, of the genus Prunus, ripening sequentially from July to October in the United States. Development Sam Van Aken is an associate professor of sculpture at Syracuse University. He is a contemporary artist who works beyond traditional art making and develops new perspective art projects in communication, botany, and agriculture. Aken was a 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC. His family is Pennsylvania Dutch, and he grew up on the family farm. In 2008, while looking for specimens to create a multicolored blossom tree as an art project, Van Aken acquired the 3-acre (1.2 ha) orchard of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, which was closing due to funding...