It has been a lovely week at the orchard. The weather, while a little too cold for swimming, has been perfect for apple picking and people have been coming and taking advantage of the last of the summer apples and the beginning of the winter ones. We are madly picking for the Eden cider people and above you can see Garrett working hard making great hard cider with our apples! We took our apples to the Ayer’s Cliff Fair, see above, and they did very well. It is good for people to realize how many varieties we have at our orchard. It is a heritage orchard, many trees being planted between the first and second world war. So there are a number of varieties that you will not have heard of before. And, then, of course, we also have all the tried and true apples we all know!
Ready to Pick:
Melba- just ending, still tart and delicious-great for cooking and eating.
Sunrise- just ending, picked ripe and they are softer and sweet, picked greener, crunchy and sweet
Paula Red- the first of the winter apples, hard and tart
Joyce-sort of like a cross between the Duchess-the best cooking apples of all time- and the Cortland, also amazing cooking apples.
Dolgo Crabs- getting to the end-make that crab apple jelly now!
Summer Granny-a green apple- hard, tart and good for cooking
Jersey Mac-the last-sweet and juicy, best for a pink apple sauce.
The veggies continue to ripen, we harvested a couple of bushel baskets of potatoes the other day. If you haven’t tried them, you should, they are amazing! The squash are a little slower but are almost there!
Come and check out the pottery-just for yourself or for a gift. Makes a wonderful wedding, shower, birthday…gift!
Don’t forget that Chris is doing a concert at The Piggery on Sept. 15. See above for details. It will be incredible.
Hope to see you soon!