Apple Time
Perhaps I’ve mentioned about a place near a place I’ve lived that used to be a town until the Feds decided said town flooded too often and besides, the area would make a great wildlife conservation area.
So the town was bought up, tore down, and all the little critters live in peaceful harmony.
Including descendants of the town’s cats.
And some of the fruit trees people had in their yards.
The bulldozers got most everything else; I wonder how/why the gardens survived.
I’m glad they did though.
So about this time of year, Mrs DT and I would head out to this wildlife preserve and pick apples and pears and quince and other such during harvest season.
Pies, cider, cobbler, turn-overs, fritters, or just plain eating.
Looks like applie pie time for sure.
Cooked apples on the stove with lemon juice and a little brown sugar would also be nice.
Now those are healthy looking apples. Bet they have never been sprayed.
One can see were the old homesites were by the presence of apple trees.
Everyone should have a quince tree in their garden. There are varieties that grow even in zone 4 and they are all beautiful.
Thay are an ancient magical fruit. The apple Adam gave to Eve is actually thought to have been a quince.
I have a variety that yields small fruit but it is just as magical as the larger ones. Slice the hard little golden apples thinly, pop them in a jar, add some sugar, top it up with vodka, wait 3 months and you will have a deep pink liquor that is like nectar of the gods.
PS. Stunning photo. Should be on a cookbook cover.
Excuse me–“slice the hard little golden apples”? Are you saying the apples or the quince?
There is a camping-ground on Mount Palomar, and a 3-mile trail from there to the Observatories up at the summit. Along the trail about halfway there are several escaped apple trees. In the fall they have small but good fruit. So we ate them, and then tossed the cores into the bush.
If everyone keeps doing this, soon the hillside will be covered with apple trees.
I have never lived anywhere where apple trees are grown or grow. It seems to be a “back East” kind of tree. But apparently the west slope of Palomar, the soil and climate, are just right for apples. I’d like to think that it was one of the early astronomers, Hale and Shapley, Hubble, Zwicky, and Baade, who started the trees when they went for a walk while on an extended observing run at the observatory.
Washington state is known for its apples