It has begun, friends–the harvest season begins with radishes and onions, continues with peas, spinach and kale and when you get to this point in the season, it’s all about green beans and apples.
Soon, soon there will be full-sized tomatoes, warmed by the sun.
Our McIntosh apple tree always begins to drop fruit at this time of year and will continue through July. We are cider-makers in this house, so the apples get cleaned and chopped up and frozen until it’s juice-making time. I put the first gallon bag into the freezer tonight.
It is a relentless process. Every day there are more. Wipe clean, cut out the bruises and worms, core them (because of worms and bugs) and throw them in a ziplock bag. Last year’s cider is very dry–no doubt because so many of the apples were not precisely ripe. If we need to, we’ll either buy a half bushel of sweeter apples or we’ll get a gallon of juice to add in.
The old Cortland continues to produce a decent crop each year. She was old when we bought this property in the early 1980s and her limbs are bent and broken. Each year, she’s a little the worse for wear and we fear she won’t survive another mountain winter. So far, so good, though. Her apples will start ripening as the McIntosh finishes her run. And I will keep a sharp eye out for apples trees that stand alone, untended, unpicked.
If you have apples in your yard that you aren’t going to use and you’re in the AVL area, leave me a message. Perhaps I could trade you some cider, when all is said and done.