How does it happen? One day everything is neat and tidy, all organized and running smoothly and the next, it looks like I let a bunch of preschoolers and monkeys loose in my kitchen. I spent nearly all of Saturday organizing the cabinets AGAIN!!!! How did I end up with 3 opened boxes of corn starch? Most of what I did was consolidate. The good news is that I have a lot more room and I can find what I need but I suspect that this is going to be the way it is around here. I get busy, I cook with kids, I do three things at once and the mess takes over. With my kids coming home, I’m really committed to keeping better order around here but ask me next month how it’s working out for me.
We had one busy weekend. On Saturday, we attended a barn dance/wedding reception just up the street then returned home in time to walk over to the community house for a concert. Radio Free Earth ( I LOVE RFE) and Evelyn Harris from Sweet Honey and the Rock played. It was great music to sing along with and dance in the aisles to. We had the girls with us and they had so much fun. I think Phoebe danced all night. Sunday morning we went to church, then returned home to rack the wine and help friends with some cider pressing. They ended up staying for dinner and a visit. It was a lovely, productive day.
The question was raised about what we would do with a windfall of cash. Would we buy more land or what? That led to a conversation about how one is best situated for the coming hard times. The pro for buying a more isolated spot is just that. Being off the beaten path has some advantages but, for me, they are outweighed by the convenience of living in a place where I can walk everyplace that matters to me. A typical New England village like the one we live in was designed for the kind of living that will be necessary in a resource depleted world.
To get back to the wine; the grape was good, the dandelion fair and the goldenrod was fabulous. Even before it has aged enough it was good enough to drink. I got 9 bottles in total and I still have another gallon of grape to rack which will give another 5 bottles. Not a bad haul when you consider that All I had to purchase were some raisins, some sugar and the yeast. I need to sit down and do some calculating. I could substitute honey for the sugar. I can make yeast and I can dry my own raisins so, with a little fiddling I should be able to make a completely local wine. Sometime I need to add some citrus to a wine. Now my little lemon tree has 6 gorgeous lemons on it. That will do nicely. I am actually thinking that I may pick up a few more citrus trees. They won’t keep us in daily juice but they will give us enough to do a project like winemaking and the occasional treat.
I had a Christmas apple this week. It’s the oldest known cultivated variety in New England (that’s what the sign said) so I saved the seeds. Have any of you ever grown a tree from seed? I haven’t but I want to try. We have so enjoyed our apple press and the idea of expanding our orchard is really appealing. My kids could make a decent living with an orchard and a press.
November 8, 2010 at 8:07 am
Apples grown from seed do not resemble the apple the seeds came from. Apples are always cross-pollinated, while the apple “flesh” is always maternal. The best way to conserve heritage apple varieties is to graft.
I’m not saying not to plant the seeds, but just that what you get from them (in a few years time) won’t be Christmas apples.
November 8, 2010 at 8:28 am
What to do with a windfall is the big question. Each year, hubby gets a bonus as part of his pay package. Last year we got a new garage type shed and made a decent start on finishing the sun room (3/4 done)plus expanded the garden beds. This year, bees and equipment, rabbits and equipment, better grade fruit trees and perhaps a brushhog of some type.
There is always something to do. Organization is a once a month thing here…ordinary homestead living makes it impossible to keep everything picture perfect, but once a month I can do and it helps a lot.
November 8, 2010 at 8:56 am
I contemplated saving apple seeds once too. Then I looked into it. Sadly, apple genetics are exceptionally variable. It’s *extremely* unlikely that you’ll get something resembling the parent plant from the seed. (As in, chances are less than 1 in 100.) Also, there’s the rootstock issue. You’ll have no idea whether the genetics in the seed will give you a standard, dwarf, or sturdy/hardy/disease resistant rootstock. The variety of apple you enjoyed is almost certainly produced by grafting onto good rootstock from a different variety.
Best bet is to find out where the apple came from, and ask whether you might be permitted to take a scion cutting at some point. If you have an apple tree already, graft a branch onto that. If not, either plant one in the spring and wait a few years, or order rootstock alone for next year and attempt a direct grafting.
We’re planting an Ashmead’s Kernel next year – another legendary apple whose flavor earns high praise, and apparently stores really well.
November 8, 2010 at 9:08 am
That’s what I was afraid of. I guess it’s different with peaches. I had hoped that, as it was heirloom, maybe it would breed true. A few folks have asked about the Foxfire books.They are a 1970′s series of books written about Appalachian life and folklore and show you how to everything from dress a squirrel to make moonshine.
November 8, 2010 at 10:51 am
If it is the oldest variety cultivated, then it shouldn’t be a hybrid, and it will breed true. Dry your seeds for about two weeks, then freeze your seeds for at least 4 months. Soak the seeds for a day, then plant, they should germinate in about a month. Plant, in the spring about 12 feet apart, you may want to plant amid a flower bed, so you don’t inadvertantly mow your seedling down. I have apple trees and pear trees started this way. I also have an slmond tree and a peach tree, but it is not the right climate, and the buds always freeze off. seven to 10 years you should have Christmas apples!
November 8, 2010 at 12:03 pm
have grown oranges and grapefruit and lemon from seed and as yet the orange brings plenty of fruit every year that is very sweet if you do some watering and keep the birds and rats from eating all the small or larger unripened fruits, that is where cats come in handy….
November 9, 2010 at 6:47 am
Geezermom – it has nothing to do with how old an apple variety is, it has to do with the fact apples are *always* cross-pollinated, so you are bringing in the male apple’s genes into the mix. Since these seeds are from a purchased apple, you have no way of knowing what variety was planted in the same orchard, or even in the same area, and so cannot know what variety or mix you will get out of it. I realize it’s a frugal way to start trees, but having to wait years to see the fruits of one’s labours, so to speak, and then be disappointed by the results…
If this is a variety you want, it’s much more frugal in the long run to find a sapling of the same variety, or even a graft if you are able to do your own grafting onto your own rootstock.
November 9, 2010 at 5:46 pm
But there must be some way of generating good trees? How do the nurseries do it?
November 9, 2010 at 10:16 pm
The vast majority of fruit trees are grafted. Grafting is asexual propagation, and thus the resulting fruit is identical to the tree the graft was taken from. Especially in cold climates – grafting allows for less hardy varieties to be grown in hardy root stock.
November 10, 2010 at 7:28 am
Not really for publication. Kathy, I just read something that I don’t know if you know about and if you do, what do you think? The link is from Granny Miller’s blog and is regarding BPA in canning lids. I think that I am going to take this seriously and buy all new plastic lids. I’d love your thoughts.
Barbara Pak
http://homesteadgardenandpantry.com/kitchen/home-canning-food-preservation/tattler-reusable-canning-lids/
November 10, 2010 at 8:04 am
I think most of our existing varieties come from rare spontaneous mutations on other trees, which were then grafted onto other rootstock and preserved down through the generations. I say rare, because the mutation had to have produced something notably pleasing to people. A few orchardists do experiment with developing new varieties, but the time frame is very long, the required space is very large, and the odds are very slim. They need to plant hundreds or thousands of seeds, wait for the tree to mature and bear, and then judge the fruit. So perhaps you begin to see why so few new apple varieties are developed. In earlier periods of course, even bitter or sour apples were used to a limited degree in cider making. They still do that in England, I’m told.
November 11, 2010 at 3:00 am
The bitter apples would also have been used to make the English version of verjus, a kind of early vinegar. There’s also a grape version from warmer climes. Presumably people would have made it out of any available fruit. And yes, pretty much any apple goes in our (hard) cider!
In the UK there have been pockets of areas where apple development has been extensive. We went to an apple tasting day recently and there were many very local varieties, all developed in the middle of the last century in a small town near Oxford. Clearly it was someone’s passion! None of the varieties were/are commercial.
Whilst what Kate says about it being a (very) long shot is absolutely right, it is worth remembering that the Bramley, THE English cooking apple, came from a seed planted in someone’s garden, so you never know! If you have the space and inclination, it might be worth a try. At the very worst, I guess you have delicious fire/smoking wood at the end of it!