It's Apple Time!

Ask Sir Isaac Newton. If you are sitting under an apple tree and an apple falls on your head, you might just have a profound revelation, or at the very least remember where you put your car keys.

But in all seriousness, apples do fall from trees when they are ripe, and ours are falling fast. It is a race between picking them, using them and the deer, who love apples. In fact a very large Buck with big horns has taken over my apple tree and he means business.

We have an apple tree that must be at least 50 years old. It is a three apple tree, meaning way back, different types of apples were grafted on the same tree. And after so many years, it is still producing hundreds of pounds of apples a year. I have picked a few hundred pounds of apples so far and it is not easy. But if you want to be sneaky, throw an apple picking party, much like a painting party. Your guests get to your house and quickly find out they have been had. No, but it's fun , really.

What is fun is cooking with them. Making cider. Apple pies. I give apples out to key people who can cook, bake, and in fact I just got this delicious apple pie yesterday, which I would take a picture of except the fact it is only a plate of crumbs now.

Apple trees bloom in early spring and the bees go to work, pollinating the blossoms. At this same time, another creature visits the blooms, laying an egg on each blossom that will eventually produce a worm in each apple, or almost each apple. This creates a problem if you want to grow "organic" apples. And I love the old joke my dad told me when I was young. "What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm in your apple."

I use a spray that is made of microorganisms that eat the worm larva in the blossom. It seems to work well. I had about a 90 percent success rate this year with no worms. But check to make sure your spray is safe, and follow the instructions. Also search google and ask around for other ways to combat these worms. Nothing worse than a worm in an apple, well one thing, but I already said that. "Never say I don't listen to you dad".

Think of all the old sayings and stories of apples. From "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" to the story of Johnny Apple seed, "American as apple pie, and so on, apples are in fact better than oranges. Well, maybe not, but let's not go there.

There are so many things to do with apples. Apple pie of course, apple sauce, apple cider, ummm, some use apple mash to make other things to drink, apple fritters, apple chips, which btw are so good and good for you, much better than potato chips I think. Candy apples. You name it. Or you can just eat them right off the tree. And they are so good right now. And you thought shrimp had a lot of uses?

For the beginner, like me, apple butter may be a good idea to make. I saute diced apples in butter until they are soft, then mash them up and put them on toast or English muffins. Very yummy. You can also put a few cubes in a pan with some diced apples then strain out the butter and use the butter as you would butter for any recipe.

I need to get out today and pick a few more baskets of apples, the last of the season. Then the tree will lose it's leaves and the whole process starts all over again. If I can just scare off that large deer. He means business and that tree is his right now. Right out the bathroom window everyday, eating the apples. Lucky he can't reach them all.

In Washington State they have whole festivals around apple harvest time. They bob for apples, which I could never grab an apple with my teeth. It think it is actually impossible and the parents just get a big laugh about it all.

So now it is guava time, and right after that pomegranate time. There is always something ripe here on the farm, after the pomegranates comes the tangerines, then the oranges. Ok, ok. I love oranges, and how this whole debate arguing apples and oranges got started I will never know, they are both amazing.

Speaking of guavas, I am taking some down to Roxx on Main and the chef there says he knows what to do with them. Most people don't. So in the next few weeks there should be some interesting desserts at Roxx with Guavas, which I will be very interested to taste. And then pomegranates.

On a side note, I was just in Nob Hill yesterday shopping and saw apples. You know they cost a fortune. And grapefruits for 99 cents each. I just recently picked 300 pounds of grapefruits. And if you add up all this produce we, well, produce here, you are talking at least a couple hundred dollars a week in food. Also I am going to Loaves and Fishes again with more food, and inviting friends to come pick. You are all invited to a guava and pomegranate picking party! It's fun, really. But stay clear of olive picking parties. Now that is not fun. Ask my mom who still tells the story of picking olives as a child and I have picked my share. We have several olive trees that we let others come and pick. Not me. I draw the line at tangerines. And with the price they charge for olives, you would think I would be out there picking away.

Please contact me through Patch if you would like some apples. Or pomegranates. I hate seeing things go to waste. But bring a couple buckets and gloves maybe, picking is hard work, especially lemons, which have some brutal thorns if you can believe it. Sometimes 2 inches long and I just got chills thinking about them. You can hear a few choice words from me sometimes when I am picking lemons, and why would a tree that produces such sour fruit need to protect them so much with so many sharp thorns?

And deer do not like lemons. It's no wonder.

And the old saying is true, you will always get a few bad apples in any basket. But with a little knowledge, and diligence, you can greatly reduce the amount of bad apples. Perhaps Congress can learn a thing or two from growing apples.

And please, as I told Becky, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me. And by the way, Becky is indeed the apple of my eye!