Summer Twilight

The past week I went up to West Haven Farm to help with thinning.  The farm has agreed to let me thin on my own schedule and keep track in the orchard log of the trees that have been thinned.  For my labors they have offered me an exchange of veggies and fruit from the farm, a more than fair exchange in my opinion.  The apples are sizing up nicely and many of the trees are showing a good crop.  The sun has already left a red blush on many of the small apples, helping them to stand out against the clay coated leaves.  I biked up late in the afternoon, the mile and half straight up the west hill of the Ithaca basin.  It is my favorite time to work; the late afternoon.  As I arrived the farm workers were finishing the last tasks for the day and heading home with a few quarts of fresh strawberries left over from the days labors.  Soon the tractor was parked and the gate closed and I found myself alone, with the crows and the trees, and  few evening peepers tuning up for their symphony.

My task was fairly simple; for each cluster of apples, (there are normally five blossoms in a cluster) I was to choose one apple that would remain and pick the others off.  Sometimes the choice had already been made for me, as a number of the blossoms never reach fruit set, or fall off naturally.  Other times there would be only two apples, one of which would show signs of infestations or deformity.  However many times I found myself in a position to choose between more than one perfect apple.  I felt grossly under-qualified to play god, choosing one apple to mature in the summer sun and dropping the others to the ground.  As the shadows grew longer I methodically rounded each tree, my eyes darting from branch to branch.  The first time round was always slow, yet no matter how thorough I felt I was being, a second and even a third walk around the tree would always yield new clusters, which I sometimes could swear were not there the first time. As I suspected, thinning apples is not unlike picking them.  Although the apples are smaller and much less willing to let go of the tree than they will be in a few months, the motions and the rhythm feel very much the same.  It was reassuring too realize that the feeling I get being in an orchard in the fall is as much a product of the trees themselves as it is the season. 

Thinning Time

Good morning!  And a beautiful morning.  The weather has been cooler the past few days, giving almost an early May feel and allowing some of the brassicas and peas in the garden to catch their breath after the stunning heat of the past few weeks.  The long summer evenings have pulled me away from my computer and out into the garden (see photos) or onto the porch for a late supper. 

Thinning has likely already begun or will begin soon at most local orchards.  This morning I am headed up to West Haven Farm to meet the orchard manager and hopefully learn more about the art of thinning.  Thinning is needed in almost all orchards in order to allow the apples to reach a substantial size.  To over simplify, if too many apples remain on the tree, it does not have enough energy, nor the apples enough room to allow for mature fruit.  Instead, an unthinned tree will usually bare a large quantity of gulf ball size apples.  In some cases late freezes can do a bit of their own thinning, something many growers in New England experienced this past spring.  Unfortunately mother nature is not so meticulous, and even if a grower looses much of their crop to a late freeze, thinning is often needed for the remaining apples.  This sentiment was expressed recently in a posting I read by Michael Phillips on the growers forum of the Holistic Orchard Network. 

In larger orchards, thinning is often done by spraying hormones or other agents that "force" the trees to drop a somewhat predicable percentage of their crop.  However, in many organic or smaller orchards thinning is still done the old fashioned way; by hand.  

I am excited to learn more about this aspect of apple cultivation; immersing myself in parts of the apple growing cycle other than harvesting.  I wonder if it could almost feel like picking miniature apples a few months too early.

 

Story of an Apple: Macoun

I was introduced to the Macoun (pronounced McCowan in some circles) for the first time this past fall picking at Moose Hill.  Having come from the Midwest I was unaware of, but quickly discovered, the reverence that many New Englanders have for this apple.

The Macoun is a product of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York.  It is a result of a cross between McIntosh and Jersey Black (also Black Jersey) and was introduced in 1923 to growers.  The apple was named after a Canadian fruit grower, W.T. Macoun who was a horticulteralist at the Dominion Experimental Farm from 1898 to 1932, overseeing 24 different experimental farms across Canada.  He was also the founder of the Ontario Horticultural Association.  

The Macoun is a later season apple, usually harvested sometime in early to mid October.  At Moose Hill it is usually harvested around the same time as the Goldens and only shortly before the Empires and Reds.  When ripe, it has a deep purple or almost "black" hue, a quality reminiscent of one of it's parents.  The Macoun has a short stem, which allows it to be "pushed" off the branch as the fruit reaches maturity.  This creates a small window of time after apple shows it's true colors, but before it is a carpet under the picker's feet.  The fruit needs direct sunlight to develop the dark hue it is known for.  Because of this color picking is often needed to harvest an ideal crop.  Even with color picking, there is marked difference in the color of truly ripe apples and those found in the depths of a large tree (see below).

Macoun apples: on the left are apples picked from a smaller open tree and on the right fruit from the

inner branches of a larger tree.

Perhaps it is the Mac in them, but Macouns are not ideal keepers, although new storage techniques have allowed growers to sell them through most of the winter.  They can also be a challenge for growers in their tendency to give a heavy crop one year and then almost no apples the next.   When they do bare heavily however, as they did the year I picked at Moose Hill, the sight of a tree laden with deep purple apples in the late October sun is one of the many sights that reminds me why I am an apple picker. 

Story of an Apple: Mother

I would like to tell the story of an apple, lovingly named the Mother, in honor of my own mother who was born 63 years ago on this day.  My mom started picking apples near my home town while I was still in grade school.  In many ways she probably inspired my own exploration into apple harvesting and for several years we picked apples on the same crew.  Over the past 15 years or so she has been a picker at three different orchards around Gays Mills and although she no longer straps an apple bag on her shoulders, she can still be found among the trees in the fall as an employee of Sunrise Orchards.  I am thankful for all that she has taught me over the years.  Happy Birthday Mom!

MOTHER

This small to medium sized apple also known as American Mother originated in the mid 19th century in Worcester County, Massachusetts.  The apple, prized as a good eating apple when fresh, but not a good keeper, found popularity during the 1920s and 1930s.  It can be found in many old orchards dating back to those times, but has more recently also been grown by hobby growers.

The fruit has been described as having an almost "balsamatic aroma" or even a suggestion of vanilla.  The Mother tree blooms late in the spring and is usually ripe by mid-September, although the they often require extensive thinning in order to bare fruit of significant size as well as to avoid biennial baring.  The mother is also valued for it's resistance to both scab and mildew, which can plague many varieties.  

Source: www.treesofantiquity.com/images/large/Mother_LRG.jpg

Fruit Set

This past Friday I made my way out to West Haven Farm, which is just a mile and a half up the road from me.  When I say up, I mean it in more than one way, especially when the trip is on a bike.  The apples, which are in the "back" of the the 3/4 acre orchard, past the peaches and apricots, were showing a promising crop.  Most of the trees at the local orchards had petal fall a week or two ago.  With fruit that has already set, they were able to pull through the cold nights of this past week that made it down into the high 20s.   Most everyone I have talked to has indicated that bloom was about 2 weeks ahead of "normal" this spring.  This could translate into an earlier harvest for many varieties.  Harvest date seems be dictated much more by when a tree blossoms, than the variable weather conditions of the summer months.  It is encouraging to know that the first apples will be picked in less than 3 months!