The Rural Voice, 1990-09, Page 33years, it is hard to spot their tracks
in the trees, but they do shed antlers,
which they leave between the rows
of the orchard.
There are Spartans, Mutsu, Yellow
Delicious, and others, something for
every palate, sweet or tart, firm or soft,
granular or smooth. If you don't like
Macs, there are Cortlands which can
be cooked to make the very best of
applesauce or pie, adding as much or
as little sugar as you like.
The thing I like best about the
orchard is the aroma of apples. And
of course the weather in the fall is
the best weather there is: cool, crisp
nights and the days that can be almost
balmy. The leaves of the deciduous
trees are just changing
colour — as many
colours as there are
varieties of trees: red,
yellow, bronze, amber,
brown, darkish green.
We have maple, birch,
aspen, larch, poplar,
and chestnut just in the
immediate area. It is
weather that flies and
pollen and weeds have
a difficult time coping
with, and they must wait
to try again next year.
Later, the apple
leaves themselves will
turn to yellow or brown.
A lone apple may be left
here and there to tempt
the deer and the squirrels.
Many apples might be
left if they were too small to harvest.
The drought a few years ago was hard
on the crop.
In the morning the mist hangs
over the orchard and heavy dew coats
the grass. If you drive in the lane you
must watch for the peacocks which
wander down to the pond, six or eight
large birds with shining blue necks.
They are never in a hurry and survey
one neighbour's field and then anoth-
er, never allowing for property lines.
Our neighbour has kept peacocks for
decades and you quite often hear them
scream. You can hear the owls too,
hooting at night, and in the summer
the whippoorwill calls.
The beaver who have invaded
the pond leave the apple trees alone,
preferring the birch. When the trees
were younger, the mice and rabbits
liked to girdle the trunks, and some
of the trees died.
Almost every customer has a story
to tell me. Everyone likes the apples
to be the same as last year and, since
I am new again at the orchard, I get to
hear the stories. Many bushels of ap-
ples make their way in people's trunks
to Florida to be eaten over the winter.
Apples picked from the ground
make good cider if some of them are
still tart. Apple butter is also a fav-
ourite. Apples can be dried and I
know people who still dry their apple
slices and have a gadget for doing it.
Or apples can be peeled and sliced
and put in the freezer.
But the best way, to my mind, is to
eat them fresh, and if there is only one
apple and you have someone looking
at you when you are thinking about
eating it, you can run your fingernail
around it from stem to end and back
again, give the apple a twist, and it "
will snap neatly in half.0
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SEPTEMBER 1990 29