What I Did This Summer

Off and on all summer I have been working on this pair of box-weave knit socks in a soft alpaca yarn.  Somehow the first one was so much fun to knit but the second one took FOREVER to finish.  They are finally done now and just in time for the toasting of toes in these cooler nights.

These apples are from a pick your own orchard I found a few hours drive from me.  Why are they not my own apples?  Well, remember that groundhog?  She turned into three groundhogs.

I set the trap and caught one; it now lives in a nice meadow in the uninhabited realms of national forest.  Then I set the trap again. 

The trap caught another animal almost right away.  Thing is, groundhogs aren't black and white striped!  I had caught a skunk.  I dressed in my oldest grubbies, covered myself with a trash bag, tied my hair inside a grocery bag, and armed myself with a wire coat hanger so I could hook the latch open without getting too close.  There will NEVER be photos of that moment. 

I managed to release the skunk without getting sprayed but I haven't dared to set the trap again.  Thus the groundhogs have had free reign in the garden and orchard this summer.  The conveniently short dwarf apple trees have been completely relieved of harvest by the giant groundhog who stands on her hind legs and bends even the higher branches down to eat the fruit.

I also made a lot of cookies over the summer for various functions.  These I took a picture of because they were bunny shaped cookies, whereas most of the cookies I make are simply that round lumpy predictable cookie shape.  Very edible and not necessarily un-photogenic, but somehow the bunnies just seemed more photo-worthy.

Orchard

Is it crazy to have a dwarf antique apple orchard in your tiny south sloping suburban back yard? Maybe. But I went ahead and planted one anyway. In two rows, the front row has four apple trees and the back row has two apple trees in line with a holly bush and something I think is some kind of spirea. Dwarf trees need to be staked but they're great space savers because they can be planted as close as 8 feet apart. I positioned the orchard in the back corner of the yard for two reasons:

1) That's where some of the best sunlight space was for them, and it puts all the fruit together since the blueberry hedge and the raspberry patch are just to the front of the orchard.

2) Perspective, a technique borrowed from Japanese gardens. Smaller trees look like they are farther away creating an illusion of greater distance. Since the orchard trees are dwarf they will grow only 8 to 10 feet tall. Hopefully, when mature, these trees will then appear farther away than they really are making the back yard seem larger. That's the plan anyway.
I planted them late last fall, getting them in the ground just before it froze -- I was planting them during our first snowstorm. This spring they bloomed and most of them tried to set apples.The Grimes Golden and the Arkansas Black didn't bother with trying to fruit in their first year. The Cox Orange Pippin, and Washington Strawberry tried but gave up and dropped their fruit. The Pound was doing well but the tree is still to young for the weight of those big apples and they dropped too.
So all that's left are three small Yellow Transparents clinging tenaciously. Since the Yellow Transparent is an early apple (August) I have great hopes -- I might actually get ripe apples my orchard the first year! Most dwarfing stock helps the apple trees to fruit earlier, but the general rule of thumb is still 2-5 years before you can expect a crop. Though I don't suppose anyone but me would call three apples a "crop" anyway. :D

Ashmead's Kernel

The twelfth and final apple of Christmas is the ancient Ashmead's Kernel. My sister says, "This is the only brown apple you should eat, all the others taste like cheese." She then proceeded to nibble away like a mouse with.... never mind.

Although this russet had the strongest "cheese" smell before it was sliced it had a lovely non-cheesy tart flavor. Sprightly with a nice edge to it. It's a great eating apple. We think it would also make a good cider apple for those who like their cider to turn a bit hard. Which means Ashmeade's Kernel also makes the list of those trees waiting to be transplanted from my wish list into reality. Our apple had a very nice form too. Sorry about the blurred photo but you get the idea.

Baldwin

The Baldwin, our eleventh apple has a nice tartness to it. The pretty shape and colour with bright white flesh make this an apple that is as fun to look at as it is to eat. It was ranked as "better than a Red Delicious." We are a bit scornful of the omnipresent Red Delicious however, so that's not so high a praise as you might think. Still it is a good apple and deserves a place in the fantasy orchard (which is now well over 100 imaginary acres, BTW).

Golden Russet

When my sister refers to "the apple Cheez-it" this is the apple she means. The Golden Russet hints at a cheese scent and she is now firmly convinced that all brown skinned apples will smell like cheese.

I thought it was more of an alfalfa aroma, rather like the smell of rabbit feed.

I'll wait while you laugh.

The Golden Russet has a lovely pear texture and an inoffensive flavor which actually put me very much in mind of Asian apples and pears. And it has an adorable shape.

Newtown Pippin

No, the apple isn't fuzzy. Sorry for the blurred photo but don't let it prejudice you the photo might be bad but the apple is great. The Newtown Pippin was an all around favorite. Juicy, and firm, and spunky, and flowery. It seems to store quite well and we thought it would be good for ciders, pies, sauces, and eating fresh. This pippin is on the list of favorites waiting to make the move from fantasy orchard to real orchard.

Calville Blanc

This apple, the Calville Blanc would work well in sauce or cider. It is mildly acidic. The aroma reminded me of yellow tomatoes. Evidently, I am told, there must be something wrong with my nose because that wasn't it at all. We found the flesh of our apple to be a certain sort of grainy, quite probably from age, and suspect that this apple does not store well.

Scheduled Posts continue tomorrow with another lovely Old-Fashioned Apple for the 12 days of Christmas.

Northern Spy

Thin-skinned with a crisp flesh and nice tartness the Northern Spy is a very pretty apple with a spunky flavor. We think it would probably also be a good baking apple, holding together well in pies, but we like it as an eating apple. The lovely acidity suggested lemon hints.

My sister says: "So far the little red apples are winning. Normally I like green apples. You're writing that down? You're so strange."

Hudson's Golden Gem

Our sixth apple in the apple tasting was a russet known as Hudson's Golden Gem. Russets have characteristically rough brown skin. My sister is not a fan of the look.

Hudson's Golden Gem carries with it an aroma of cheese and strong tones of pear. The texture of the flesh is particularly pear-like. My sister calls this russet the "sharp cheddar one" and although she means it as a criticism I believe it nicely points out that this apple would be an excellent apple for serving on an apple and cheese tray. But then, I thought Hudson's Golden Gem was a fairly decent eating apple.

Rhode Island Greening

A very pretty apple the Rhode Island Greening is sour. SOUR! Like "sour green apples," like sugarless sour patch kids, like the best use for this apple would be vinegar.

To quote my sister "If anyone offers you a Greening, tell them NO." I didn't think it was quite that bad. It's not an eating apple for sure, though the Greening probably would be good for a cider blend if you ran out of crabapples.

Esopus Spitzenberg

"I like you." The Esopus Spitzenberg is my sister's favorite antique apple of the 12 we sampled. Thomas Jefferson and I share her good opinion of this apple. The Spitzenberg was our third president's favorite apple. With a spunky flavor and a friendly freckled skin it's a great eating apple and we are sure it would make good cider too. We could tell that our apple had been stored for some time -- and it seems to store well -- but the flavor fresh off the tree would be even better. This antique apple graduates from fantasy orchard to real orchard at the first opportunity. Only... would someone please tell me how to pronounce that first part of the name? E-sop-us? Es-op-us? Eso-pus?

Tolman Sweet

The Tolman Sweet we tasted did not live up to its billing -- it wasn't particularly sweet. Instead it might have been better named the Tolman Sort-of-Pine-Tasting. We found it to have an interesting evergreen pine scent and flavor. An intriguing apple as a unique specimen but a bushel might be to many. It's not a bad apple, but we couldn't think of a good use for it as the flesh (being grainy and mealy) was not of a quality to encourage ideas of baking or drying and we thought the pine flavor might throw-off the taste of sauces and ciders.

Moyer's Prize

Our second apple had a fun "sheepnose" shape and a brilliant pink blushed cheek. Moyer's Prize is a very sweet apple with an exceedingly soft flesh. It was not at all firm and we thought would never be a good baking apple but would probably be a good sweet to balance a snappy tart apple in a cider blend. I thought it was okay for eating, My sister suggests it is another saucing apple -- for people who don't mind a slightly "pineapple taste."

Arkansas Black

First up was the Arkansas Black. We were not impressed with the watery taste of this apple. It was bland and although the flesh was firm and would probably make a good sauce we decided this tree did not make the list for our fantasy orchard.

Hey, if they can have fantasy football leagues I can have a fantasy orchard. You should see it, it's self-mowing. ;D

The neatest thing about an Arkansas Black apple is the dark red skin. It colours everything a beautiful deep pink-red. Incidentally, the skin is where most of the flavor seemed to be also.

Old-Fashioned Apple Christmas

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

We opened up our Antique Apple Sampler and had an apple tasting party while the freezing rain slowly melted from the trees and roads.

Look for the first apple when the bell tolls... ummm... tomorrow's post.