Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Apple Drops

We have about six apple trees sprinkled around our property. We always get fragrant and colorful apple blossoms in May, but that sometimes can be just about it. We never had them touched, sprayed or treated in anyway. Sometimes they stay mostly green, while other years they are quite big but wormy. You know what they say: what's the most dreaded sight after biting into and swallowing a delicious, juicy hunk of apple? Half a worm. Yuk! It's happened to me and worse. However, this year's crop are large and red and for the most part worm-free. The tree straight off the deck is laden ed with bright red ones that can be seen from inside the porch. This is a quite a treat. In all our years of living here, I can't recall a crop like this. Saturday afternoon, I headed up back with a bag and gathered most of the red drops. Like I said I found them a bit bruised but worm free. Monday, I peeled about 20, cut them up and Elenka made a delicious apple crisp. It's the first time ever that we've enjoyed anything from our apples other than a bite here or there over the years. I like peeling. Mom could peel a large round Cortland all in one long peel strip. I loved eating those long strips of apple. I tried to keep munching as she peeled. She was a master peeler. It was a losing battle.
Usually apple orchards around here offer a reduced price for drops.
Bruises and all.
I'm not proud.
I can eat around those soft, brown bruises with the best of them.
Oh, I just heard a couple more plop to the ground.
Might there be a pie in my future?

16 comments:

  1. A pie in the future sounds good. Greetings!

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  2. Your lucky. We'll start seeing the Honeycrisps in the stores again soon. Meanwhile, we get to look forward to all the citrus in December. We could trade fruits?

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  3. I do miss good apple cider. There were lots of apple trees in Illinois where I grew up and fresh apple cider was a fall treat I couldn't resist.

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  4. It must have been the rainy cool spring that the apple trees liked - or could it be all the snow from last winter insulated them nicely. Enjoy your crop!

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  5. I gave my father an apple tree for Christmas one year so that he could cross pollinate with another tree he had in his garden. I don't think any two trees ever garnered so much attention as they did.

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  6. An apple a day ... :-)

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  7. My favorite apples are the hard and almost sour Granny Smith...

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  8. Right, well I'll help with pie baking. And apple sauce making. And cider making. And hard cider making. And jam making. You apple name it, I'm game.

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  9. We had apple trees on the property growing up, but not the sort for eating as they were. My mother would make apple sauce out of them and freeze it all for the winter.

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  10. Lucky you! Apple crisp sounds wonderful as does the pie. I'm not gonna think about worms though.

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  11. Hint: cut the apples in half before you bite.

    But do you like apple sauce?

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  12. The drops are also good for making apple sauce. A very easy way to use the apples and you can freeze what you don't need now and use it later.

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  13. Sounds like it was well worth the wait Birdman!

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  14. Sounds like it was well worth the wait Birdman!

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  15. You guys are brave. If you haven't been spraying them, I might decline your offer of a bite.

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  16. Apple crisp from your own harvest sounds pretty darn good!

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