Apple Time

Last year the apple tree in front of the house had at most six apples; only one lasted long enough to turn red, the rest dropped early. This year the tree was loaded with hundreds and hundreds of apples, the local commercial orchards also have an abundance of fruit, likewise the old trees on abandoned farms are bearing heavily.

Some trees have produced huge quantities of apples- 

Our tree isn’t sprayed and is only sporadically pruned and then for its health and not to increase fruit yield. You could even say that our apples are gluten-free, lactose free, non-GMO, soy-free, anti-biotic-free, vegan and all natural. The tree’s apples have an occasional coddling moth caterpillar inside and quite a few of them are marred by apple scab; but the tree yielded a lot of apples for apple sauce, apple bread and other goodies, and even some that were without blemishes.

We picked and picked, filling 5-gallon buckets with the fruit –

Now the freezer is packed with containers of apple sauce and loaves of apple bread and we’ve enjoyed desserts of apple crisp.

But it’s not just H and I that have enjoyed the bounty of apples; a lot of wildlife has feasted on the abundance of drops and defective fruit. Opossum –

Raccoon –

Gray fox –

And white-tailed deer visit day and night –

Our apple is a descendant of the apple trees brought to North America by early settlers, as are all domestic apples and their many relatives now growing wild on abandoned farms and at old logging camps. Those apple trees “gone wild” provide a bounty of food for wildlife and those that are best for wildlife are the trees that hold their fruit into late winter –

Apple time is over for us because the fruit on the tree out front ripens early and, if not promptly picked, falls soon after.