it’s already been a ton of people today.
lovely people bringing things and taking things and people with nothing just starting. no takers on the buddy tape or strawberry pots yet though
@nuttingbumpus do you want some buddy tape? I ordered two rolls and they sent me a dozen.
Very full day today. Will give you a call tomorrow about buddy tape - haven’t tried that yet. Thank you
sure thing, no hurry it’s not going anywhere
potato mountain adventure
I am flighty and exuberant and cannot resist potatoes
therefore I got myself into serious trouble at the hutterite potato mountain party. we got there day one, a friend told me it was up and I dragged my partner into the car, and filled every container, and filled my little hatchback completely with potatoes.
I was so excited that I did not even think for a moment about anything but potatoes. my mind went blank. then I got home.
unloading the potatoes. piling and looking over the potatoes. starting to process them. realizing I have no more freezer space after washing, peeling and boiling 30 pounds of them. canning until I ran out of jars and my hands hurt from soaking and scrubbing and cutting.
I gave many to other people in the local food not bombs group to preserve until we need them, gave a lot to the food bank, and am giving more to a local mutual aid group today.
I have no jars left. my deep freezer is full. my back hurts.
BUT I had a great time at potato mountain. I also found a lady who knows about an onion mountain and another who knows about a corn mountain so I get the feeling I might be in trouble a few more times this year.
romance
I brought home 23 large bags worth and processed and preserved 6. I’m spent.
That is an insane amount of potatoes. You’re probably more ambitious than most in how much you took home, and I bet it would take many hundreds if not thousands of you to make a dent in that pile.
it was wild. families filing the beds of pickup trucks. hippies with big laundry baskets. farm workers with kids filing bags. we didn’t make a dent in the nearly full afternoon, it was as if none had been taken
it was on the news the following day and after that I think it was all gone. enough people showed up! I kept trying to fit more in the car! I kept thinking about the food bank and food not bombs both needing food like this, and getting more crazy about playing Tetris with my hatchback
if I had a truck? it would have been worse, much worse 
All my apples are picked. Most were ready up to three weeks earlier than in recent years. I picked Redfield last and was surprised to find it quite good: 14 Brix, still fairly firm and the berry note readily apparent. It made exceptional apple crisp.
mine were all done a month ago; several i thought might take longer, fell. I’ve got 3 gaps in fruit season to fill i think.
i didn’t know redfield was berry flavored!
I have some Waltana, Bramley’s Seedling, and Spartan that are still hanging. We are getting frost most nights and temps look to be around 25 next week so I’ll be getting the last of them off the trees. This Ashmead’s picked last week was excellent.
Ashmead’s was a poor choice for this rookie when I first started growing apple trees. Get your hands on Claygate (Pearmain) and compare it to Ashmead’s. They both are triploid and high flavored. I have found Claygate much easier to grow and more precocious.
Thanks @NuttingBumpus, I’ll add that to my (growing) list of scions for next spring. I’ve got about 100 varieties I’m currently trialing, but apparently there are at least 20 more I can’t live without
The Ashmead’s is a small branch on a frankentree, so just fun to get some to try!
Picked the last of the apples as the 20 degree weather is arriving. Tried a Waltana, and I really like that apple! Brix reading was about 16. Spartan was also nice and had a Brix of 15.
An Etter apple, Waltana. Many of his apples do better in the High Desert. Can you describe the flavor profile at all?
A nice sweet/acid balance, fruity tones, flesh was crisp, clean, and very juicy. I was quite pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I only have one branch on a frankentree and this is the first year it fruited. I have one more I am going to store for a while. I could eat a lot of these without getting tired of them! I have Wickson and Vixen grafted, and next spring I want to add Venus de Muscat and Etter’s Eden. Hoping this is a sign that my other @SkillCult varieties will do well here.
When beginning this thread, I expected it to be far less active than, say the Pacific Slope group (in their thousands), and am not disappointed. Rather, I am thankful for you folks who have something to say and do so.
Looking ahead, I hope to graft six more apples in the next season, some on existing trees to study close at hand and some for friends. More on that subject when there is something to report.
Anji: all of the red-fleshed apples I have tasted had a berry note to some degree. It might be connected with the red-flesh gene. I have tasted: Dolgo, Red Vein, Winekist, Redfield, Arlie’s/Mountain Rose, Pink Pearl, Lucy Glo. The young tree of Otterson might offer some bloom & set sample fruit in '26. I hope someday to squish it with juice from Lamb Abbey & ferment them. Or with Maiden Blush, or Twenty Ounce, or Claygate (that would have to be a blend of quite differing ripening windows)…
@NuttingBumpus, I appreciate having this thread! Here is my list of apples I’m planning for the spring…
Temperate Orchard
Scott’s Winter
Sary Sinap
Ontario Russet
Thomas Perot
Orange Sebby Crab
Etter’s Eden
Swayzie
King Russet
Muscat de Venus
Enigma
Orleans Reinnette
Yates
Ordered
39th Parallel
39th Parallel
Clark’s Crab
Brushy Mtn Limbertwig
Russet King
Pumpkin Russet
Maple Valley
Friandise
Honey Crab
Heyer 20
Lamb Abbey Permain
Claygate Permain
Derek -Hocking Hills
Herfordshire Russet
Golden Knob
Rosemary Russet
Bullock
Hunge
Dave’s Supreme
Collet
Cara Cara Crab
Fireside
Travis, if you get Rosemary Russet going, please let me know. When it became clear I would never get edible fruit from it I was dashed: the tree was vigorous, spotless, with the biggest apple leaves I’ve yet to see, beautiful flowers. Wooden golf balls from it and another tree to which I had grafted it, year by year.
I was so excited about this apple I wrote a short story about how it got its name - strictly fictional.
May Rosemary bring you joy.
And if it does, please notify me, for I would then ask if I may visit and taste one.
Hi Dave,
I will certainly let you know in a few years. I will probably put it on some B9 rootstock in a tightly spaced test row, and then also graft onto a more established tree. Happy to have you visit - bit of a trek from Spokane down to south central Idaho!
Ah, but talking shop with another budding arborist would be worth the time and gas.
And anyone with Dad-joke puns like “budding arborist” is always welcome here!
