ripening apples Archives

August 25, 2014

The Taste of Fall

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The nights are getting cooler. Fall is just around the corner. The ripening apples are good enough to eat now. A week or two from now, they will be perfect. This year the trees are loaded. With all the sunshine we’ve had this summer, their flavor is intense. Once you pick an apple off a tree, fresh to eat, picking them out of a bin in a store seems so drab.

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How to tell when your apples are ripe ~ Oregon State University Extension Service
When are apples ripe? ~ University of Wisconsin Extension
Harvesting Apples ~ Dave’s Garden

August 12, 2014

Grow Food, Grow

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Seeing planted seeds sprouting is always encouraging. Those first bits of green show so much promise. Soon, these cabbage sprouts will be out in the field, growing and becoming succulent heads.

The ripening apples portend cooler weather. This year is promising to be a bumper year for apples. The riper they become, the more I keep my ears open to hear if any pileated woodpeckers have found them. They love pecking and eating apples. We don’t mind. This year there are more apples than we can possibly eat. We are open to sharing them with these wonderful birds.

If you’ve never seen a pileated woodpecker with its bright red head, or heard its startling call, or listened to the rapid thump it makes when it pecks at a tree trunk, you’ve missed a great pleasure.

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