Category: fruit

Apple foraging

CatherineLeave a comment

Sam has been bringing apples home for awhile, but recently we got serious about the fall apple harvest. He picks from local trees that seem otherwise ignored. We don’t like to see the apples going to waste. Here are the six types he brought home recently.

Foraged apples with location noted
Tasting slices – note the reddish interiors of the ones on the right

I made an apple crisp with these after cutting into them for a taste test comparison. The apples with the reddish flesh (right) are my favorite. Tart and crispy. But they’re all good. The variety on the lower left is HUGE, the size of my fist or bigger. Not a superstar for flavor, but nice white juicy flesh. They were all juicy, probably because they were fresh picked. I wonder how they will store.

Today we went back so I could photograph the trees they came from, and also picked some more. The photos are in the order of the apples laid out above, going clockwise from top left:

Behind town hall, back left
Behind town hall, right
Across Point Road from the town hall – these are almost all gone now
On the roadside past the small yellow house on the east side of Point Road – very delicious apples
Across Route 1
Across Route 1 detail – hanging in thick clusters like grapes
Behind town hall, left (the huge red ones)

Goodbye gooseberry

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I’m sorry to have to say this, but we eliminated the gooseberry bush. It was so overgrown and intertwined with grass and it barely produced any berries. We enjoyed the neighboring blackberries so much that we decided to create more space for them to spread into the corner.

The raised beds may eventually be eliminated (or expanded? joined?) but not sure yet.

Blackberry (left) and empty gooseberry bed (right)
The gooseberry uprooted

Nest with raisins

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We actually don’t eat many concord grapes, so a lot of the production of this row of grapevines goes to waste. I’m still trying to figure out how to use the vines for projects like basketry. I use an occasional leaf or two to cover up a ferment. The leaves contain tannin and are supposed to help keep fermented pickles crisp.

A few weeks ago I was exploring the vine jungle and found this nest, with a cluster of grapes resting in it. I just left them there, not thinking too much about it.

Today I was cutting back and cleaning up the tangle of grapevines and found the nest again. This time with a handful of raisins in it.

Kiwi bees

CatherineLeave a comment

The kiwi vine is in bloom and the whole thing is buzzing with bees. No fruit will be forthcoming though because we don’t have a male plant. Not sure I want one, because I’m just picturing fallen kiwi fruit littering the deck and needing to be swept up.