The Rural Voice, 1990-09, Page 32W
APPLE
PICKING
Anticipating
the pleasures
of the orchard
at harvest
by Sandra Orr
e have an apple in front
of us. It looks like a very
green Cortland or, heaven
forbid, a Spy — which I would cut
and put in a pie with six or seven other
apples or take the core out of and bake
with brown sugar and raisins. It looks
far too green to eat fresh. In fact,
since I help out at an apple orchard
and have many more appetizing vari-
eties to choose from, I am not tempted
to eat it in any case and I will set it
aside, hoping the chipmunks will take
bites out of it and save me the trouble.
The man beside me, looking at
the same apple, sees that it is round
and green, and smells fresh, remind-
ing him of young girls. But then he is
of an age, having reached the autumn
of his life, when almost everything
reminds him of young girls. I bet he
would bite into it right away and sa-
vour it immensely, whereas I would
turn it down even though I am no
young thing either and starting, I
know, to show usage. We leam later
that it is a large, green Mac, a surprise
to me, as 1 thought I knew a little
about apples.
You would not believe how par-
ticular people are about their apples.
Are the Ida Reds ready? If not, we
will come back at another time. Can
we get Delicious yet? When I tell
them where to go in the orchard they
wonder if thcy may pick them off the
same tree they got them from last
year. Yes, fine, I say, ever amazed
that occasional visitors can find their
way around the orchard. Since there
are many varieties all ripening at
different times during the season and
planted in alternating rows, we who
help run the orchard need to consult
the map to see where the groups of
trees are.
One year there were so
many deer in the orchard and
they had nipped the trees back so
severely that my father went
to the local hairdresser's .. .
Delicious are best eaten when
they are properly seasoned. Just the
other day, a man picked some to take
back to the city. He too had a parti-
cular tree in mind when he drove in
the lane. He told me he had graded
many of our apples for years. Most of
the apples are picked into bins holding
about 850 pounds of one variety and
are sold to Versteegh Bros. of R. R. I,
London.
You must not pick a Spy, for
example, until there has been a heavy
frost. If it has snowed, the apples are
even better. A little frost and rain or
sleet improves the colour of these
apples, which seem to keep well until
far into the spring. One man told me
how late he left getting Spies last year:
it was almost November and there was
snow on the ground, the apples cling-
ing bravely to the tree. He pointed to
the exact tree he hoped to get them
from this year.
You must not eat a Mcintosh when
it becomes too ripe, for then it gets
soft and even mushy, and there is
many a better feast for us apple eaters.
Though now as I write this story,
having just eaten a Mac — like an old
farmer, my husband says: cutting it
and removing the core and slicing it
— I can say the Macs are still good.
Even the ones that have fallen to the
ground are still fine.
Of all apples, the Macs are the
ones most difficult to keep, most
difficult to grow well, and most
difficult to receive good grades for.
People tell me when they have picked
a bushel or two from the ground at
half price, hating to see them go to
waste, how good they are.
But they will not likely go to
waste, for if they are not picked for
juice, as the price might be too low,
the mice will make free with them, as
will the deer in the winter. One year
there were so many deer in the orchard
and they had nipped the trees back so
severely that my father went to the
local hairdresser's, begging for left-
over hair to be swept up from the floor
and saved. He put it in little gauze
bags and hung them on the trees. I
doubt if the hair bags kept the deer
away. There are so many deer in the
area. With so little snow in recent
28 THE RURAL VOICE