Apples – The American Fruit

  • Post published:10/26/2015
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Ralph Waldo Emerson called apples the American fruit. Certainly the legend of Leominster-born Johnny Appleseed, once an orchardist and later a traveler on the frontier planting apples, is one of our favorite American stories. However, archeologists have found European fossil evidence of apples growing in prehistoric times. Apples had a long history before they ever made it to America. These early apples were actually very tiny crab apples. Evolution carried on its slow work over the eons. The…

Apple Harvest – Disease Resistant Liberty Apple

  • Post published:10/11/2013
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My apple harvest is at high tide. The whole neighborhood has been talking about what a great apple year this is, so I am not alone. Right now I am harvesting Liberty apples. We planted this Liberty tree in 1983. I think. We chose it because of its disease resistance. We have taken very little care of it, except for some not very expert pruning. This self-fertile tree continues to bear, and the fruit is remarkably unblemished with…

September 1 Record Fruiting and Tangles

  • Post published:09/02/2013
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This post is part of my twice a month record of bloom and doings in the garden, on the 1st of the month, and then on Bloom Day, the 15th. As we begin September it is clear that in spite of the hot and dry weather Thomas Affleck continues to thrive. One a very few other rose blossoms are to be seen. What the roses are doing instead of blooming is producing hips. The Rugosas have the biggest…

Life Under Our Feet – and Fruit Over Our Heads

  • Post published:05/13/2013
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There is life under our feet. I have talked about living soil from time to time, but in his New York Times essay yesterday  Jim Robbins says that "One-third of living organisims live in  soil. But we know littel about them." Well, of course I know about worms and  bugs and the mycellium that I can see, and I know the soil is full of microbes, but to think that one-third of ALL living organisims live in the soil…

A is for Apple – A to Z Blogger Challenge

A is for Apple and I found 36 varieties of Apples with names that begin with A right here.  I've known about the Arkansas Black and the Arlington Pippin but that was the end of it for me. But there is also the Ambrosia apple, a modern Canadian apple similar to the Golden Pelicious, the American Summer Pearmain Apple, very juicy, the Autumn Gold apple, better than Golden Delicious and obvously, many many more! I became interested in old apple…

John Bunker and His Wanted Posters

  • Post published:11/06/2012
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  John Bunker, heritage apple expert, and author, distributes WANTED posters for the old apples he is searching for. He gives a pretty full description of the apple's appearance from size, shape, color of skin, color of flesh, stem size, and seeds. I've learned some new words like Acuminate which refers to the tapering shape of the seed cavity. I don't know what the 'eye' of the apple is. I know the opposite of the stem end is called the 'basin,' and has…

John Bunker and David Buchanan on Cider Day

  • Post published:11/05/2012
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John Bunker and David Buchanan gave a couple of talks on Cider Day all  about their experiences with finding and planting heritage apples. They also got to sell their books. I knew about David's book, Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter,  but I didn't know that John had also written, and illustrated, a book about the apples and orchards of Palermo where he lives in Maine. Not Far From the Tree: A Bried History of…

Taste, Memory by David Buchanan

  • Post published:11/02/2012
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  David Buchanan and I met at the Conway School of Landscape Design (CSLD)  reunion in September where he gave a six minute talk about what he had been doing since he graduated in 2000. He talked as fast as he could, and I listened as fast as I could, but I was glad I could slow the journey when I received a copy of his new book Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter.…

The ABCs of Heritage Apples, and Others

  • Post published:10/27/2012
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A is for Apple, but if we look at heritage apples we can march right through the alphabet. Baldwin, Cox’s Orange Pippin, (Old) Delicious, Esopus Spitzenberg, Golden Russet, and on through to Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, Stayman Winesap and Westfield Seek-No-Farther. The Roxbury Russet and Westfield Seek-No-Farther remind us that some apples had a very local fame and audience before they spread to wider fields. In fact, Roxbury Russet was the first named apple in Massachusetts. Even though…

Wishing for Warm April Showers

  • Post published:04/09/2012
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The weather remains cool and breezy or windy.  And dry. I wish we had some of that early warm weather, and rain.This morning there was spitting rain - and snow flurries. There is very little sense of seasonal progression in the garden. This is the single daffodil in bloom, besides the very early Van Sions, but you can see (if you look closely) that buds are showing some color. Over the weekend my husband got all the little…