The leftovers of a few storms landed on our doorstep this week and sadly, I lost an apple tree in the mayhem. At least it was a roadside specimen that was in a hard to pick location. The ground there along the drainage ditch stays fairly soaked which I suspect softened the soil enough for the old girl to topple over in the winds they clocked at over sixty miles per hour locally. My other fruit trees that line the driveway are actually intertwined with stronger pines and birches that seem to support them plenty. Fingers crossed there.
But fear not, that still leaves a few dozen from which I can pluck fruit and that’s precisely what I was doing before the storm hit. About three bushels worth and counting. Apples are plentiful from the overloaded branches but rather small and blemished compared to “extra fancy” graded examples you see on grocery store shelves. Thankfully cider making doesn’t care as long as there’s no rot, mould, or insect interlopers which I edit out as I pick. I didn’t see much of that in any event and better air circulation in the branches will generally get rid of most of those issues.
I didn’t have the equipment to get into the trees and properly prune their twenty plus years of wild growing habits last January but with the new (old) truck I can now haul bigger ladders to the farm and try to get the job done. In addition to airflow, that will reduce the number and increase the size of fruit to proper eating quality if only I can get to them before spring. Hacking back the fallen tree with my hand saw took a good long while and that was at ground level so you can image what trying to manipulate sharp things on the end of a ladder with branches, birds, and coyotes harassing me will be like. At least the best pruning time is the dead of winter so some of those complications will be minimized. And snowbanks will break my fall.
The power has been flickering on and off while they repair the lines so I’m going to keep this to a minimum and go back to my good old fashioned books on cider making and apple identification to leave the computer off a while longer. Cider shenanigans to be reported later.
