I fear my hopes of hot apple pies, baked apples, and fresh applesauce have been dashed for the year. If that IS Cedar Apple Rust, then those dreams are dashed for the future, as well, because I asked Zorak today if we can cut down the cedar tree, and as it turns out, he loves that cedar tree. He loves it so much, his voice rose an octave as he told me he loves it. That's a lotta love. You know, for a tree.
So, in an effort to comfort myself, I rounded up any children who weren't sleeping, and made them help me pick the pears. Before some kind of mildewy-gut-rot gets to them, too.
For one neglected, 45ft. tall tree, I can't complain about this year's harvest. Heck, two years ago, we didn't even know what kind of a tree this is! So, we've been pruning and hacking and praying. This is the first year we've had fruit from it.
This shot was taken about halfway through the picking. We got about that much, again, and then Zorak made us stop. It probably had something to do with the fact that I have no idea what we're going to do with all these pears. Or perhaps it was when I mentioned that after you pick them, you have to let them ripen for a week or two. There are another couple dozen pears still on the tree, but I suspect they'll remain there until the boys and I figure out what to do with them and where to put them.
Oh, well, it was fun. And it took my mind off all those apple pies I'm not going to be able to make this year. *sigh* For a while it did, anyway. By the way, I'm really enjoying Picasa's new functions and upgrades. Hopefully, this collage will be a clickable link, because it's really neat-o full-size! (Whoa, and was it HUGE! Edited to tame the beast a bit... edited again to apologize - now it's a manageable size, but it's no longer clickable. No clue what the problem is. Probably operator error of some kind... *sheepish grin*)
Kiss those babies!~Dy
11 comments:
Call me tomorrow am and I will give you some recipes.
LB
That bump on the apple looks like a gall of some sort to me...you and the boys could disect it and see what you find....otherwise, I have no clue.
I've noticed that if I upload pics after I have written my text the pics will not be clickable, but if I start with the pics and then write, the oppsite happens. I have no idea why this is.
How awesome that you have fruit trees! That is wonderful!
mere
There is always pear crisp and pear sauce.
Yes, ew, I totally agree. :-)
I am currently trying to get my hubby to chop down a few black walnut trees as they are too close to our apple tree. So far, the tree is ok, but I hate to wait until it isn't.
ACK! What can Black Walnut do to apple trees?!?!? (There's one of those somewhere in the upper meadow, too!)
Dy
Don't know. I just read that they are poisonous to apple trees. :-/
Pear preserves are wonderful - my grandmother used to make them for us. I also like pear crisp. Just make it like you would with apples, only I think you shouldn't let the pears ripen all the way before you do that (they get too soggy if they're completely ripe).
I don't know about the apple issues - those just look strange!
I agree that that looks like a gall. I think galls occur when some insect lays eggs in the fruit and the gall grows up around the larvae. You can find them on trees and stems of plants and all sorts of things. Is it hard? If it is, I bet it's a gall. You can just cut it off the fruit as the larvae will usually be contained to that one little walled off lump. Treat it as you would a bad spot. You don't throw the whole apple away for a bruise. Just be careful not to tell family members who will gag and choke and want to throw up over the news. Boys sometimes find this stuff pretty interesting though.
I googled images of apple cedar rust. I thought I'd seen it before, and sure enough I have. This looks nothing like it and when the stuff sprouts it's orange, wormy little "legs" it's a really lovely (not) texture too. Again, boys are fascinated with this stuff. Sometimes girls, too.
Apple cedar rust has crushed our dreams of planting a mini orchard here. We have TONS of cedar trees. They grow quite well in the dry, rocky upper levels of our property. Even if we all of them down, our neighbors have so many that I don't think it would do any good. And we do love our cedar trees. I hate the thought of cutting down something that grows here naturally and replacing it with something unnatural for the area. I'm not sure what dh and his folks are going for, but I'm shooting for the house plunked down in the middle of the nature preserve look rather than the manicured lawn and rose bushes look. I even fight to save the weeds:o) Some nice homegrown fruits and veggies planted inconspicuously sure would be nice though.
Oh! I really love the photo collage, too. That would look nice on a wall somewhere.
Take a gross apple to your local county extension office and see if they can not only identify the problem, but advise you on a solution. They're great at stuff like that.
ACK! I can't believe how many of you want me to TOUCH that. Disect it? Put it in the CAR and travel with it? Did you not see that I am not-a-farmer? *shudder*
OK, Jenni, I think it's fair to say that if something has gestated IN my food, I'm probably going to have issues with it... but then, fire kills just about everything, so I'm game.
The pictures of the apple cedar rust that show the orange play-doh like hairs are all how it manifests on the cedar trees, themselves. I found a photo of this bump thing on an extension site or a university site that had an actual picture of the stuff on an apple. Of course, that was back in August, when I was trying to figure out what the soot and the spots were, and all I remember about the page was thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad we don't have THAT stuff to contend with!" Now, I can't find the site again. But if I do, I'll post it.
Thanks for the energizing posts, guys. You make me laugh, you make me think. You really think much more highly of my abilities and fortitude than you should. But I do love you!!
Dy
I sympathize, because I won't even look at the picture you posted for more than a split second glance. I'm very squeamish. Here is what I would do:
You take a child, send him out to pick the ugliest example he can find and put it in the paper bag. Have that child then take the paper bag and put it in a sturdy zip lock bag, and another in paper bag, then put it in a backpack.
Next time you're out and about you can drop it by either your county extension office, or look for one of those people who deals in trees (I know they have an official name and charge money, so extension offices are better), open the backpack at the office and tell someone else to get the paper bag out. Leave your number and head out the door.
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