They are so so in size, I think the picture makes them look larger. However, they are large enough to enjoy. My husband has the patience of Job for his hazelnuts, vegetables, not so much LOL.
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I’ve always wanted to make a little maple syrup, and I’ve heard a lot about birch and really would love to taste it. I think it is really neat that you’ve done this! I can only imagine how much time and work it has taken for each small jar of that syrup!!!
did you use sap from white and yellow birch or just white? I’ve tried the white birch syrup in Alaska and it was good but I’ve heard of people tapping yellows and they say its better than maple. ones that make it don’t sell it or share. they say it tastes like maple with some butter mixed in.
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Well that is interesting, we think they are white birch but I never really took note. We are lucky to have inherited on quarter section of land that we call the ‘Birch Quarter’. It is almost totally covered in Birch with a few Spruce and Poplar mixed in. I will have to look up the difference and make note if we have yellow birch.
city man, the time is what I consider ‘waiting’ time. Collecting is just a matter of hanging pails and waiting for them to fill. We have an old wood furnace on a pallet that we boil down the syrup, and just wait and add wood. After it is reduced enough into the slow cooker to wait again. Washing up is the work!
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yellow birch has golden colored bark and flakes in small strips. its twigs when chewed taste like wintergreen. they’re very distinctive to white birch. grouse love their buds as well. not unusual to see 5-6 grouse in a large yellow birch in winter.
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Here in Spokane it is a rare year I don’t see at least one adult in late summer or early September. Green, light brown or wheat straw colors.
Two weeks ago on a hike I met with another much smaller species of mantis. It was only twice the thickness of a wooden match stick, maybe 2 1/2 inches long, mottled from ash gray to charcoal gray, on the ground. It would have been overlooked if it had not flinched as I passed by. The little movement caught my eye. I hunkered down and took a closer look.
Decades ago I saw a close relative of the mottled one: same coloring and time of year, fully developed wings, but less than the thickness of and no longer than a wooden match stick. That one had antennae twice the length of the entire insect. The gray one seen recently had antennae much shorter, maybe 1/2 inch long and quite narrow.
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Found a windfall Connell Red apple just before lunch today. 2 7/8 inches tall by 4 1/4 inches wide (double checked measurements) 10 ounces & 16 Brix. Nearly ripe, with a dark brown seed the codling moth caterpillar left to look over.
Starch is diminishing and this one had enough wax to shine up a bit. Flesh tallow colored, rather dense and chewy; light juice & McIntosh flavor beginning to meet taste buddies.
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I forgot about a bunch of fig cuttings I had in the fridge until I found them a couple weeks ago. This last bit of summer heat seems to be enough to get them started before they have to be brought indoors for winter.
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Those look great Andrew. I actually keep a lot of my scion wood in the fridge at work because it is almost always nearly empty and doesn’t get much use. Like you, I just last week found a bunch (A BUNCH!) of scionwood from all kinds of trees that I collected last winter to use this spring. I was absolutely SHOCKED by how good much of it looked. Not much mold, not many had sprouted, and more than half of what I checked still had healthy green under the bark when scratched. In other words, most of the wood seemed very viable. That just blows my mind. I never would have imagined that wood I collected last FEBRUARY would still be in such good condition. CRAZY!
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I’m surprised at how quickly these started to grow. I’m pretty sure I received these around the new year, so almost 9 months in the fridge! My problem is I don’t have the space for all of them. I took the longer cuttings and cut them in half so I got twice as many for some varieties. You should try budding some of that wood you got left and see if any take. We have about another month before any dangers of first frost. Not sure how the weather works your way, Kevin.
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Just got a letter stating that Wallace Woodstock Nursery is for sale.
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Wet snow all day - first September snow in many decades, nearly a century.
Looking over the graftlings made last spring, one I thought was also Twenty Ounce is not the same cultivar. Dormant twigs looked similar, foliage does not - especially at the growing tip. Several scions got loose from looped tags in the bag as I returned from a propagation fair before grafting. So, I now have hope that Ananas Reinette actually got grafted this year. It will take a couple years to verify, but the prospect is exciting.
That would make a banner year for this little home orchard, in successfully grafting Maiden Blush, Twenty Ounce, Ananas Reinette & the extremely obscure Mere Pippin (thank you, Skillcult!)
Oh, not to neglect my first plum graft, done with a single dormant bud, Mt. Royal. Big year for me.
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Araçá season starting… 
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Corn flakes and chopped up candy heart pluerries. These just keep getting better the longer they stay on the tree. These were picked today.
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I picked these two peaches today. They are late and taste great. Not sure of the cultivar (my notes say Elberta) but that is pretty much my theme.
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Sete capotes (Campomanesia guazumifolia) harvest season is starting… 
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Planted this Red Malaysian guava late last year. It’s a seedling from La Verne sold at the big box stores here. I wasn’t sure if it will survive the winter or produce any fruit. It surprisingly did both and I just tasted the first fruit. The flavor is excellent - mostly a white guava with a hint of strawberry. The tree is also very ornamental with evergreen red foliage (ever-red?) and pretty pink blossoms.
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