Apple Season 2021

It's apple season here once again. Last year, my two trees gave me nothing. They were both blooming wonderfully in May, when we got about 8 inches of snow. The bees thought it too cold to come out and pollinate for a few days, and by the time they arrived, the blossoms were past. The ancient tree tends to bear every other year, and I was hoping for bounty from it. The younger tree has only just started bearing but the blossoms aboard it looked so promising. sigh.

Fortunately there's an apple CSA (community supported agriculture) near me where they have a bunch of old timey and rare apples. Most are not commercial successes as they are either not beautiful looking enough or the fruit isn't uniform enough, or they're not the current darling. It was fun to sample so many kinds, and I'm glad for those who are continuing to grow them. I got the CSA as much as to support their efforts as anything. And I learned about different varieties. Some were for fresh eating, some for pies, some for cooking. All were delicious.

My up the street neighbour let me scrump from a tree on the boundary line between her and her neighbour's yard. Neighbour wasn't interested in the fruits, either, so I used those to make apple sauce. Not quite as sweet as the apples from my trees, and a tad more mealy, but tasty all the same. Neither neighbour was interested in the apple sauce.

This year, both trees in my yard bloomed well and are bearing a bit earlier than usual. Perhaps it's because we were so dry and some things sped up a little. On my walk around the neighbourhood, I chatted with another neighbour, asking if I could scrump from her tree if my trees run a bit short. We've had raccoons visit, and I saw a grey squirrel in the ancient tree and jump to another tree with an apple in his mouth. I had no idea they liked apples.

We do next to nothing to the trees. I pruned the younger one this year, but that's it. So we do get a number of fruits with worms. We cut away the bad, eat the good either right away, or later on, as sauce or dried apple pieces.

Neighbour told me i was welcome to them. She said she does nothing to them, so they'll be wormy. They're an old variety, what kind who knows? Like mine, her house is from the 19th century, and the tree likely came very soon after the house. The apples are juicy, and her horses loved them. Both her horses are gone now, dying from old age.

I nodded and said I remembered seeing them and wouldn't want to take away any apple treats from them, although I hadn't seen them in a while.

She smiled, said they lived well into their thirties, which is a long life for equines. She looked a tad wistful.

I thanked her for letting me scrump as needed and then said, "I suppose it isn't really scrumping if I have permission, is it?" And here we both smiled.

She said some years she does do things with them, but she's not going to bother this year, so I may take all I want. She said they aren't good for pies, because they break apart too readily. All that juice. I thanked her, said we usually do apple sauce and dry some pieces,  and told her I'd likely be picking her worms quite soon.

I had chatted with a friend to see if she wanted to split apples with me this year. She does, so we'll take from my trees and those from neighbours. I'll offer some sauce and dried apple pieces again this year to those who let me scrump.