We have apples. When we moved into the house in 1994, there was one small apple tree almost buried in the tall grass:
Later I bought four apple trees and planted them. This seems like maybe five years ago. When I went to look up information about them in my garden notebook yesterday, I was astounded to find out that this happened in 1998.
One of those trees died in a very hot, dry summer in 2002. Another one, despite several efforts to prop it up, has fallen completely over on its side, and I’m just letting it be that way. Two of the new ones, though, and the one that came with the house, are doing well and bearing a lot of fruit.
That’s the same tree that came with the house, by the way, now all grown up.
I decided that the fruit on two of the trees was ready to pick, and I wound up filling a laundry basket and a large box with apples. Here are some of them -
They’re more or less organic, since I never manage to get around to buying sprays and putting out fertilizer. I did spray some roundup on the poison ivy underneath the one that came with the house this year. In any case, they certainly look organic. They taste good, though. The tree that came with the house is susceptible to cedar apple rust, a fungal disease that is endemic here in the ubiquitous eastern red cedar trees. The ones I bought are all cedar apple rust resistant, so the spots on their apples are all just from bugs.
Today I need to peel, core, and slice a buttload of apples and freeze apple pie filling.