Halloween marks the border between abundance and scarcity, between summer and winter, between the living and the dead.
Today we are well into hoarding time, scavanging time, pirate time, keeper time.
Even in the modern age of refrigeration and global agriculture, there is no winter apple harvest.
I am on the prowl for the apples I will eat in December and beyond.
Be wise, choose well, stock up, for winter is coming.
Today's image is in the public domain.
Well, Kevin Hauser says Sierra Beauty are supposed to ripen in December, but I had two latecomers on my tree (which I got from Kevin). Here in SoCal the trees get seasonally confused by the mildness of the winters and bloom for a long time. I went out tonight with the flashlight (curse thee, PST!) and they weren't on the tree any more. I feared that they had been stolen by some rodent, but they were lying intact upon the ground (not a big fall distance, it's not a big tree). Harvested one of my Wicksons, too. Ate the Wickson, intended to save the Sierra Beauties for some other day. But Wicksons are small...so I bit into one of the Sierra Beauties. Wow. I agree that Wickson is a great apple but sometimes, like colors, apples stand out better based on what they are paired with. The Sierra Beauty was more acidic and was quite a flavor hit after the Wickson. I was sorry to see that none of you California correspondents has yet to send you any Sierra Beauties to try. I have one left, sitting in my fridge, but I doubt I could manage to wrap it and send it without eating it. Maybe...next...year?
ReplyDeleteThat would be something to look forward to, if you can spare any.
DeleteI know that some varieties need to hang around on the tree into December and beyond to get ripe, but a few Hauer Pippins doth not a harvest make. I'll probably never have a ripe one of those.