Thursday, June 09, 2011

Don't sit under the apple tree

Because apples will fall on your head. This year looks like a big year for apples in our yard. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The good part is that there will be lots of apple tarts, apple sauce, and apple jelly (and who knows what else) later in the year. The bad part is that there will be thousands of apples on the ground that will have to be picked up each time I want to cut the grass.

Two of our apple trees. The tree in the upper left of the picture is a tilleul (linden).

There already are hundreds of them on the ground, but they're small enough that the mower will just chew them up. When they get bigger, the mower can't handle them and I have to go around filling the wheel barrow a few times before cutting the grass. I dump the apples in the compost piles and by the following year they've turned into soil that goes back into the garden.

By the end of the season I'm usually so sick of picking up apples that I just rake and roll them right into the empty garden plots where they can rot over winter, completely bypassing the compost piles (which are already full by then).

We have four apple trees in the yard. There was a fifth, but it was dying and I cut it down a few weeks ago. There are two in the photo above. Each produces a different variety of apple and I don't know what they're called. Not pictured is the big daddy apple tree which is just to the right. It drops the most apples by far.

Even with all these apples, one of our neighbors has four or five trees outside his fence next to the vineyard that are different from and (in my opinion) better than ours. I sneak over during early morning walks with Callie and pinch a few every now and then for pies. Shhhh... don't tell.

12 comments:

  1. Walt, Keep an eye open for any of the "Croquers du pomme" events... they hail from Veigné... they identified our "inherited" apple as a Reinette Blanche. They have the 'knowledge'. They also run grafting and pruning courses.

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  2. i can beat that re bertie.....my cat started meowin at 4:30......then i discovered he'd brought in a live plaything (vole)....so i was running around the house chasing critters in the wee hrs

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  3. Back at our old property we had one apple tree. Since I didn't spray the apple tree, the apples were always gnarled and nasty looking. However, the deer came by every morning and evening to clean up whatever fell to the ground. They loved them. Do you not have deer?

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  4. Can you give them away? m.

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  5. Have you ever thought of making cider? Vinegar? Dehydrated apple chips? LOLLL more work for you! That is the problem with several fruit trees. They all bear about the same time. Wish I could grow an apple tree in the tropics though.

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  6. How bout IN the apple tree? :)

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  7. Can you borrow a goat once in a while? Looks like your trees could use a good pruning.
    (Walt yesterday I was at a decorating store and found a packet full of snail shells, like the ones in your photos few days ago. $ 3.99 a pack).

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  8. East of Los Angeles, in the foothills, there is an area called Glenn Oaks, and east of San Diego there is a town called Julian. These areas are famous for their apples. Apple season here begins in October and it is the official start of the fall season.

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  9. " nearly dark at bedtime"? What time do you guys go to bed?

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  10. Starman, I remember being in France on June 21 and I could still see a bit of light left in the sky at 11.20 pm.

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  11. tim, will do.

    melinda, you win!! lol

    ron, oh yes. Our first year in the house (2003) was a heat wave year. The deer (roe deer) were always in the yard eating apples. The following year we had the yard fenced in to keep the dog in and the deer away from our new vegetable garden. Haven't had deer in the yard since.

    mark, ha! The next time you dust, gather it all up, put it in a bag and take it around to your neighbors to see if anyone needs some... Nobody want apples. Everyone has their own. It's like they grow on trees or something.

    islandgal, yes, I've thought about it. And beyond, to distilling (but that's not legal). I'm too lazy.

    writer, there's an idea...

    nadege, the goat would probably eat much more than apples. And Callie would chase it all around the yard.

    mike, I've been to Julian a couple of times. Neat place.

    starman, usually between 10 and 11, but we're up north (about the same lattitude as St. John's Newfoundland or Québec City. Stays light real late. See Nadege's comment below yours.

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  12. Another case of the apples being greener (or more flavoursome) on the other side of the fence.

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