wedding hill apples

There are two old apple trees in close proximity to each other near the top of the sunny side of the hill. It was reported to us, decades ago, that the larger tree was a Northern Spy and the smaller a Winesap, but we’re not so sure. We don’t think the larger is a Northern Spy, the smaller may be Winesap but maybe more likely it could be a Baldwin, but we’re just uncertain as to what they are. The larger tree split in half a number of years ago during a particularly strong storm and is clinging to life and seems to be getting stronger. They both ripen in late October and both are delectable. 

There was a marriage on that hill 30 years ago this 2014. It seems like yesterday that the three happy and nimble farm children climbed the twisted old trees and tossed the apples down to us; the children are all grown and gone now to eastern cityscapes. Do they even remember those carefree times?  These apple trees have likely been picked by at least 3 different farm families. I don’t doubt that many a pie has been baked with them in the same old kitchen filled with apple pie aroma on a chilly but glorious autumn day.  

 It’s not impossible for a standard apple tree to live for 300 years- which is quite phenomenal! Can any apple tree grown today have a similar life expectancy? None of us will be around to tell of it. I also know from experience, that it’s not easy to get an apple tree to get to the point that you don’t have to worry about them anymore, rabbits can destroy a young tree in one evening’s meal and borers can decimate one.

This little chicken, half the size of her peers, survived an attack from a red tailed hawk. She is super friendly, perhaps from time spent recovering in the kitchen from her wounds. She prefers to hang close to the house and not with the others, seems to prefer human or canine company. She likes to nestle close to the dogs and is fond of sitting on your shoes but would prefer your lap if you’d let her. 

This was a bumper year for chestnuts especially for the hybrids, we never had such a crop of huge nuts. The pigs are eating quite a few of the Dunstan hybrids as we still prefer the Chinese chestnuts for taste.  Chestnuts are really good for you don’t you know! They are high in essential fatty acids, high in fiber, beneficial for cardiovascular and nervous system health. They are low in calories compared to other nuts as they are low in saturated fats. They are high in vitamin C unlike other nuts and high in B vitamins. They’re an “excellent source of minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc, besides providing a very good amount of potassium” !!!

Peculiar. Two of the most consistently productive apple trees here are unknown seedlings. One is very close to the road, completely neglected and  nearly run over by the plow each year. The apples are consistently large and unmarked. They are beautiful apples with a rosy blush on one side of most of them. They’re tasty too, crisp and light textured, mildly sweet.  The other tree which is most often just covered with medium size lovely red, disease free apples. These apple are good too but they don’t keep well and get mealy quickly. When they are just picked and ripe the taste and texture is just great. We made vinegar, applesauce and apple butter this year, still an abundant supply leftover.

This is a Redfield cider apple, This is the first year the young tree produced fruit. We can hardly wait for when there is a good supply for making cider. It's claimed  that the cider is red, and the sauce made from the apples is red. It certainly is beautiful, the very dark skin belies the eye popping surprise inside. 

Honey

Down to two hives this year, which is really more than adequate for our pollinating and honey needs. It was so bitterly cold last winter and many colonies across the area perished because of the “polar vortex” This polar phenomena is reported to be coming back this winter. We lost a gallon or two of honey from a sticky explosion in the hoop house. We had the honey in a 3 gallon jar with a spout and had it the hoop house as it was a bit warmer in there during a chilly week. We were not inside when it happened but somehow for some reason it had broken into shards and honey all over the place. It took weeks for the bees to find it but once they did it was short work.

Little woods - beebalm

swine

We are trying pigs for the first time.  We were told that these two pigs are the breed "Spotted Poland China". A quick search though claims that name is no longer used, if they are "Spotted Swine" then they are white with black spots and if they are Poland China then they are black with white spots. Don't they look somewhere in the middle? Well they are closely related and are the type that will get HUGE. We are using them for soil prep (sod busting) and it's easy to see that they are going to be excellent for that purpose. So far so good, no smell and they have only escaped twice!!

duck brood

The duck was a fair bit luckier than the turkey with her clutch of eggs and this morning appeared with 12 or 13 ducklings, considering that 13 is an average clutch size, she did quite well. She was such an excellent brooder going for what seemed like weeks without visiting the pond. We may have to try and catch the males and keep them away from the pond for a spell as they are not at all gentle with the ducklings.

turkey clutch

This was the clutch of eggs that the hen turkey defended to the end. One night in the wee hours of the morning, something attacked the nest, the eggs were destroyed and the hen was mortally wounded. We do not know what it may have been - possum, raccoon, fox? We are terribly sad about it. There is still a hen that is laying eggs; her freedom, unfortunately, is now limited.

hoop house

Have some mixed feelings on this, we'll see and report in a year or two  but regardless it is up, completed in the fall. It's generally about 20 degrees warmer in there when the sun is not shining, when the sun is out it's quite warm, warm enough to bend a candle and this was in the cold winter months. We had a very cold winter with temps below zero a number of times. It's past mid March now and winter seems to be reluctant to leave us. The ground is still quite frozen, in years past we have planted potatoes by this time and sugar snap peas too. We have our work cut out for us with the hoop house and still have lots to figure out but hopefully we'll be rewarded with some season extension and lots of great veggies

garlic!

German White

This fall, we planted four varieties of garlic- German White, German Red, Turkish and Zemo, all hard necked varieties. Zemo - a porcelain variety from the Republic of Georgia with a high content of allicin, Turkish a hot spicy variety, German white -moderately spicy and stores very well, German Red -full bodied garlic flavor. Garlic is, as surely you already know,  wonderfully good for you. It's a potent antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal agent but sadly most of those benefits are lost in the cooking. Researchers have found that diallyl sulfide found in garlic, was as effective as 100 times as much of the antibiotics erythromycin and ciprofloxacin and would often work in a fraction of the time! It has been found to be beneficial to protect from lung, brain, prostate and breast cancer, help alleviate high blood pressure and high cholesterol and the anti-inflammatory property in garlic can help the body fight against allergies. As the powerful benefits of garlic come mostly through its raw form, it's lucky we have a dish that makes it very easy to eat raw garlic ... pesto! We will be using the Turkish to make pesto this summer/fall and will be consuming lots of it.

Turkish Red

Bourbon Red

We got some  Bourbon Red turkeys this year and we're growing very fond of them. They're very friendly and so beautiful in a 'only a turkey mother could love' kinda way. We are really enjoying having them around. The breed originated in Pennsylvania and Kentucky in the late 19th century, they were designated as rare but now on the watch list, there are less than 5000 in the  the US, we hope we'll be lucky in breeding them.

Some fall harvest. These pears are great canning pears the trees never fail to produce although this year was not a very productive one. The trees are large and very old, not too sure of the variety, they don't ripen until most of the leaves have turned and fallen. We have made perry from these pears in past years. This year all we made was some blueberry wine. Hopefully next year will be a better one for pears and apples.

ducks

 

We have had ducks on the farm from time to time, not for food but for, I guess, the fun. Ducks for pets and once to clean up the snail problem we had in the pond after we had brought  home some water hyacinths from another pond; the ducks cleaned them completely out. We have some rather unusual duck stories from the years of ducks. This year we brought home 4 ducks that were supposed to be rouens, related to mallards but word has it that rouens are too heavy to fly so these must be mallards. They do fly and I have to say it’s pretty cool to be on a walk a mile away from home and see your ducks fly over your head and they recognize you and circle around a few times before beating you home.  One of the ducks is a female and she has recently hatched 5 of her eggs. The ducklings are only 4 days old and extremely cute. It appears we will be with ducks for a while.

 

dog days

We had above average rainfall for the first half of summer 2013, the black pearl soybeans grew lushly. We also had a seemingly above average number of insects, the pesky kind like Japanese beetles, web-worms and other leaf eating caterpillars. Particularly unpleasant was the number of leaf munching insects found on the berry bushes, we hope it is not sign of things to come as temps and CO2 climbs.

A pleasant surprise to find a swarm settling in the swarm trap! We used a pheromone lure and voila---success. I wonder how far away they can detect the pheromone. There is a possibility that it may have been from one of our own hives or that it may be from the bee yard of a fellow about a mile or so away. Regardless, it’s pretty cool and fascinating to see. Having been up close and personal to swarms it’s quite interesting to see how they work as one to protect the queen and how calm and focused they are to their task. However unnerving, you can get crazily close without danger. What truth might there be in this old English poem?
A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July is hardly worth a fly.