RANGELEY — The Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, July 16, at the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. and is open to the public .

John Bunker will talk about the historic apple varieties of Maine and could be available to visit local trees for identification.

Bunker grew up in Massachusetts and California, moving to Maine in 1968. He has lived in Palermo on Super Chilly Farm for the past 42 years, where he and Cammy Watts grow vegetables, woody and herbaceous ornamentals, small fruits and tree fruits.

Bunker coordinates nursery sales for Fedco, the co-op seed and nursery company in Clinton. His passion is tracking down heirloom fruit varieties, particularly those originating in Maine.

He established the Maine Heritage Orchard at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Common Ground in Unity. The orchard houses the only collection of apple varieties originating in Maine.

Recently he has begun a much larger Heritage Orchard preservation project at MOFGA. Eventually the new orchard will be home to 500 or more historic pears and apples.

Bunker coordinates an annual series of organic orcharding classes at MOFGA, the spring “Seed Swap and Scion Exchange” and the October “Great Maine Apple Day.”

He speaks and teaches in the New England area regularly year round. In 2007 he self-published “Not Far from the Tree: A Brief History of the Apples and the Orchards of Palermo, Maine.”