Apple Season Continues

My friend and I picked apples from the two trees in my yard. The ancient one had dropped a good many to the ground, compliments of an earlier than normal ripening and a few storms with high winds. There were also many scrumped by the squirrels methinks, as well as raccoons and skunks because the amount I saw on the ground plus what was left in the tree didn't add up to what I'd seen in the branches not a week before.

The younger tree had kept about half her apples on the branches and some were on the ground. Here, too, many had gone missing. Along with raccoons and skunks, we have deer so I am sure everyone got a chance to eat some. The younger tree is a semidwarf, so I've no doubt the deer could easily reach up and help themselves.

Undeterred, my friend and I picked. She had never used a long-handled apple picker and was keen to try it. She's taller than I am so could reach a few without it but it was nice to be able to reach nearly all the apples on the younger tree without needing to climb a ladder to get them. The ancient tree is standard size so one could climb it were one inclined. Neither of us were, and here again, the long-handled apple picker came in handy. Here's a picture from the internet to show what the basket part looks like. The handle on the one I have is 10 to 12 feet (~3-4 metres).

I gave her more of the younger tree apples as they looked nicer and were probably less wormy than the ones from the ancient tree. I gave her at least 3 gallons/~12 litres worth and maybe a bit more. After she left I went back to the ancient tree and was able to fill up a 5 gallon/~20 litre bucket. So, plenty to go around.

I didn't get to cooking them down for applesauce as quickly as I would have liked. About half of the apples from the ancient tree that were bruised were turning very brown at the bruise spots, so I decided to dehydrate those. I filled a 4 quart/~4 litre pot with the sliced bits I got from them, and they'll be a nice addition to the larder. I like to eat them as snacks or add to oatmeal. I still have half of them left, which should give us a few quarts/litres of applesauce.

My friend told me the apples I gave her rendered 4 quarts/~ 4 litres of applesauce.

 The picture below shows each kind of apples from the trees in my yard. Those on the left are from the younger tree. I am not sure what kind they are, maybe a Cortland. The flesh is a bright white, and they are juicy, a little more sweet than tart, have a clean taste, good for fresh eats, and are not mealy. Those on the right are from the ancient tree. I think they might be Macintosh or a close relative. They look yellow and red in the pic rather than green and red like Macs, but the yellow usually has a green cast to it. They are typically a bit sweet good for fresh eats, dried, as sauce and in pies. They are usually not mealy, although some of them were when I was preparing them for the dehydrator. They may have sat a little too long waiting for me, which may also account for the stronger yellow but will be delicious dehydrated in any case.

I learned more about the apples up the street and have collected some of those. The neighbour next door to the lady with the horses who have since died but who ate many of the apples saw me scrumping when he walked to the mailbox to collect his mail. He introduced himself and told me he was glad to see someone picking the apples. Eric explained they are not good use in the cider press but are tasty and called Wolf River apples. An old, old variety like many of the apples on my street. His wife worked at an organic apple orchard before she retired, and that's how they learned more about the apples. I told him I'd be glad to share them. He laughed, said he had a Wolf River apple tree in his yard and more apple trees in the back of his house. The family who'd owned much of the land had planted a number of fruit trees. The land was divided up into house lots over the years, and many of the apple and cherry trees still survive. Eric said he'd never seen this tree bear so heavily, and a few of the apples are the size of grapefruits.

I filled my large basket and lugged it home. There's certainly another basketful on the side I can reach easily. To reach the back of the tree, I'd have to climb over the horse fence, which I am reluctant to do. My friend and I shall meet tomorrow, and we'll get the ones we can reach without having to climb the fence. They are shown in the picture below. The average sized fruit is larger than the red apples from my yard. The piece of cardboard under them is 6 inches/~15 cm square. I researched just now, and they are good for baking and drying and make decent pies. Not so great for fresh eats. I'll try them fresh, all the same. What can I say? I go for low hanging fruit!

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.

A few small things

I have been away, busy doing other things. Apologies to the few stalwarts who have been regular readers.

I have also had issues with signing in so I could publish a new post. 

For the moment, I have prevailed so shall share one small thing that happened earlier today that made me smile and led to other small things. Isn't that the way life works?

We are getting ready to do some renovations in the kitchen. That's a process unto itself that can provide plenty of blog fodder. And the getting ready part is no small thing.

In the midst of clearing out cupboards, I have been looking at what to cull and what to keep. I came to a Good Seasons cruet. I remember when it was new, which was now Quite a Long Time Ago, and how the clear, plastic lid that capped the cruet smartly had started to go. A small tear appeared along the edge and over time, the tear grew to the point where one couldn't shake the contents in the cruet without splattering them about the room. The lid went the Way of All Things. I think. I always stored the lid capped on the cruet, and the lid is MIA.

While the lid and cruet were married, the cruet was available to hold other salad dressings, not just the Good Seasons brand. I confess, I was not always brand loyal and found it handy for my homemade concoctions.

Well, how hard could it be to get a new lid? I would certainly use the cruet more often if I could get a proper fitting lid. Today was the day I set out to find the answer. It wasn't hard to get a new one, but to know where and how to get a new one presented a challenge. Looking online, I saw lots of chances to buy a new cruet with lid, used cruet with no lid (thanks, I have one of those and in the search engine I clearly stipulated I wanted a lid or cap) or cruets with caps EUC (excellent used condition for those not in the know).

And then I stumbled onto a blog that talked about Good Seasons cruets. One person commented to contact the company. Of course. How 20th century.

The website Contact Us part didn't have an email window launch, but it did provide a phone number. I called and talked to a man named Chris. He had a nice baritone voice. I explained my cruet had no lid. He asked me if I had the package it came in or a packet of the Good Seasons dressing. I told him, no, I didn't. I had used the contents of the last packet and discarded the paper envelope.

I chose not to tell him it was likely a decade or more--probably more--since that occurred.

He told me he could likely find what he needed another way, which he did. And about 15 seconds later, he confirmed he found it, and would be happy to send me two lids. TWO!

I provided my mailing address, and they'll arrive in five to seven days. No charge.

Thank you, Chris!

The stumbling onto the blog Holy Juan reminded me of my sad little blog and wondered how some of those I liked in BlogLand were doing. So I took a look, caught up with a few although couldn't comment since I couldn't get signed in. Until now.

One small thing led to a few other small things. Chris being nice on the phone and happy to help. Chris able to send me not just one but two caps for my cruet, and for free! Finding that Joanne over at Cup on the Bus still weaves lovely tea towels, and I decided today was the day to order some. They shall look wonderful in my kitchen. I think I should save them until the kitchen renos are complete. But I might not be able to hold out that long!

Still a Luddite

I got a new phone about a year ago. Himself and i took the plunge into getting smartphones. Now that whole story can be a post unto itself.

Suffice it to say for now, I thought I had the basics of the phone worked out. I received a call yesterday from my Internet provider that they were going to do maintenance sometime between midnight and 6:00 a.m. The maintenance would take about 20 minutes. During that time, no Internet and the phone with that account (it's my business line)  would be disabled, so if i needed to make an emergency call (here it's dialling 911), I needed to have another way to do it.

I do, because I kept my landline for my personal number. As i dropped off to sleep, i recalled that i had my smartphone, which would also be able to work without the connection.

I usually switch off the smartphone for the evening but had forgotten. No problem. All was well.

This morning, i looked at my phone and wanted to revert to one of the tabs I hadn't deleted. I hadn't made it a bookmark because i didn't need it that permanent, but it was handy to have and check on for the next few weeks. All my tabs were cleared out.

My guess is that the smartphone was on my wireless connection so when that cut out, it just wiped everything.

I don't like this things being wiped away before i'm ready to toss, and then never really being completely gone, as somebody somewhere can retrieve it and use it. Sort of the digital version of those socks that go missing when you use the dryer.

Since using only a clothesline, i've lost just one sock.

Still a Luddite.

Garden update

Well, the elm/whatever they might be half alive twigs and branches are still undecided if they are going to get living or dying. They aren't hurting anything in the space where they are making their decision, so i've let them alone for now.

It's been dry here, the driest I've ever seen, but we've got some rain falling today and should be falling over the next three or so. We need it.

I had some sweet potatoes that decided to sprout. I decided to put them in planters i made from two largish totes to see how they fare. If I'm successful, I'll have some sweet potatoes, and i can pick up the totes and move them indoors should the weather prove too cold near the end of the season. From what i've read they take anywhere from 100 to 120 days to mature, and I know some years we haven't had that many frost-free days.

Still, it cost very little to try the experiment. The totes can be used again as container for other plants and i had the potting soil and compost already on hand. I tested out the drainage upon initial watering, and was satisfied with how well it worked. I placed the totes on the south side of the yard beside the beans i planted in the little beds at the end of the deck.

The bean plants are looking well. At last count, I have 14 green beans and as many wax bean plants. I espied birds flying close them when they first sprouted and didn't cover the beds with any sort of covering, so birds may have made off with a sprout or two. I had planted about 20 seeds of each.

I also planted peas, one kind for shelling and the other snow peas. Those are happily climbing their way up the upside tomato cages. Yes, I was late planting those, it was just one of those years.

The tomato and pepper plants have been happy with the heat. On the local facebook marketplace page, someone was offering free tomato plants. I picked up a few as insurance. She had a greenhouse, which was new for her, and planted what she'd normally plant. The greenhouse was a much better way to start plants, she found out, as nearly every seed sprouted, leaving her with loads of plants. She also had friends and family ask her to plant some for them, which she had, but their idea of some and hers differed greatly. They thought of "some" as 3 or 4 plants, and she saw it as a dozen or so. Then, some of the tags were missing, so she wasn't sure what was what. She could guess a few, but the rest? Mystery tomatoes.

Who doesn't love a good mystery? I took some, she refused any money for them (although she did ask that we bring out own pots so she could keep hers, which i was glad to do), and most of the mystery tomatoes were happy to be transplanted.

I had a volunteer pansy plant and daisies in the garden space, which i didn't pull out, and a giant plant i cannot identify. At first i wondered if it's Good King Henry, which i first tried growing, but it never took. From pictures I've seen on the Web, it appears not to be that. The leaves are pointed like tridents. There's an herb farm near me, but they are not open to the public at this time, so i can't do my usual, which is to take a leaf and ask. Maybe they'll respond to an email.

I set out some strawberry plants three years ago, in a spot that is just a little too shaded. They have decided to bear this year, and I'm not the only critter who took note. We've had quite a few nibbled berries when we've gone to pick them. A bunch of black-eye susans which i didn't plant decided they wanted to be with the strawberries, so that doesn't help the strawberries at all.

In spring, I saw two flowers on the cornelian cherry bushes I planted two years ago, so I hope those two flowers give two fruits and are a harbinger of yummy times ahead.

The lupines have finished, the milkweed is opening, lilies greet the rain. It is summer.

Under the elm

Several years back, I saw a blurb in the local weekly paper in the want ads. Someone wanted leaves and if you had them raked into a pile, he'd collect them. I had done a good bit of raking, covered the garden and flower beds with all the leaves i wanted to use as a mulch and still had leaves left. I was happy to share the bounty.

He arrived promptly, and i helped him to fill tarps and drag them to his truck where we dumped the leaves. It was he who first told me that i had an elm tree in the yard.

He was more into chestnut trees, and after that meeting for the leaves, i never met  up with him again. I then wondered if the plants i thought were slippery elm were rather young elms and called the larger of the two Junior and the smaller Baby.

I searched to see if i could find someone who would help me with digging them out and transplanting them. Since they were likely sprung from the old elm in my yard--who had somehow escaped the dreaded Dutch elm disease that wiped out nearly every elm in the US--i wanted to have someone who knew what they were doing to help with these rare babies.

My searching came to naught, Junior grew a little more each year and was becoming quite crowded. Baby was in the shadows, not growing much, but happy to leaf out each summer.

And then i wondered if they really were elms or something else as the leaves were very close to Mother Elm but not exact. She had toothy edges and these younger trees didn't really. Junior had a slight toothy edge, Baby's was hardly noticeable.

We had a heavy snow in early April and another one about a month later in May. Both were extremely heavy, wet snows, and after the May snow, i saw many trees in our area succumb to the weighty white stuff. They snapped in half or lost large branches.

We didn't fare too badly, although a large branch of the white lilac, the branch most birds liked to perch on, twisted at its bottom. I wanted to wait until after it was done blooming before we cut it away, but Himself wanted to tend to it sooner. He was right to do so, but it pained me to cut it away with all those blooms showing great promise.

The maple on the line between us and our neighbour's, which is our neighbour's, lost another large branch. And as i walked around our yard, i saw that Mother Elm had also taken a hit. Two of her most canopy part in front and back were hanging. They're up too far for us to cut them, so i've called the arborist who trimmed our giant oak last year, as it had branches touching the roof.

He came out to see the elm and called me (we weren't home when he stopped to look) to say he could do it once we moved the boat, and it would take him between three and four weeks before he'd have room in his schedule for us. He lamented his boat was in a similar place, would we get ours in the water? Maybe. Yes, maybe he would, too, this year has been so weird.

I did say i wanted to see if we could save the tree, and he immediately replied, "We always try first t save the tree."

I said i agreed with that approach, but this one i felt especially dear since it was an elm, and they are so rare. I didn't want the mostly off/partly attached large branches to hinder her chances of survival.

He said, "Yes, it seems she escaped The Disease that took so many. We can also clean her up a little bit, and around her, too, if you'd like."

They had done the same when working on the oak tree, and we were pleased with the results, so i assented.

After the call, i went back out to look at the Mother Elm. Everything was greening up nicely, leaves extended themselves to their summer size, when i realized with a start that Junior had nary a leaf. I looked down at the base of his trunk, which like many elms, had multiple trunks rather than just one. He had three, and they were all twisted just enough to kill him. Like the lilac branch loaded with so many blooms.

This afternoon, i cut away most of Junior and felt very sad. I dragged the branches over to the woodshed where i'd break them down and put them in the tinder or larger sticks pile. A few of the smaller twigs had leaves on them. They were quite small, so methinks 'twas the May storm that did Junior in. Although the April one may have weakened him, too and May the death blow.

I  had hoped someone would help me dig him out and transplant him. It seemed ludicrous to have this tree die from a snowstorm when against all odds it had sprung up and grown so close it its now rare mother. I had done internet searches to see how best to transplant or care for them, but couldn't find anything besides generic tree information.

I marvelled that even though this tree was for all intents and purposes dead, a small part of it was still fighting to live. What if i cut off those living parts and stuck them in the ground? I realized that it was likely folly, but i couldn't not try. So there are now five awkward looking sticks with tiny leaves between the two witch hazel that decided to stick around.

I really do think Junior was an elm because he looked a miniature of Mother Elm. His shape, curve of his branches, and the canopy at the top mimicked hers.

Baby is still very much living in the understory of some volunteer maples, so when the arborist comes, I'm going to ask  him about Baby. Because the leaves are slightly different but only just, so i'm hopeful to get a positive ID and perhaps a plan for moving Baby to a better location.

And in that three to four weeks, we can see if any of the five sticks will leaf out more. I don't hold out a lot of hope but wanted to give them at least a thin whisper of a chance rather than relegating them immediately to the burn pile.