Harvest - A Time to Meet New Friends

This year our four little apple trees exploded with apples! A bumper crop! So numerous were the apples that they started pulling the larger limbs away from the trunk - reaching down and touching the ground with the weight of their fruit.

The apples were smaller than in previous years, perhaps competing for the branches and nutrients and space of the little trees that sustained them. Hundreds of golden and red delicious! Way too many for the usual neighborhood harvest, so I placed an ad in the local on-line listing service and the next day, my phone was ringing off the hook and my email inbox was filled with requests for the apples! "Free Organic Apples - You Pick!" was all it read with my contact information. That was day one… day two, the apples were gone!

Three-year old Sauvie

The harvest started early Friday morning while I still had my coffee mug in hand. Jeremiah was the first to arrive. He makes apple butter every year with a secret ingredient and recipe that he vowed to share with me.

Then there was Eileen who had lived nearby for a number of years… she knew exactly where to find me and my apples!

Kim and Paul came from their farm "Salty Acres" (https://www.saltyacresfarm.com/) in the Penn Cove area, with their three-year-old grandson, Sauvie (see Sauvie sitting in the apple crate) and they brought two dozen farm-fresh eggs as an offering. They were harvesting apples for the upcoming Greenbank Farm Harvest Faire on the 29th. Kim and Sauvie will be using some of the apples for apple sauce (a couple of jars promised to my grandsons) and the rest will be pressed for cider at the Harvest Faire. They filled several crates from the drooping limbs, which lightened the load on the branches. Today I noticed the branches are starting to spring back up to their (almost) original positions.

At around 8:30 on Saturday morning, Rayna and Rick showed up with several apple boxes! Coffee mug in hand again, I walked with them to the backyard. I learned of their new business, Earth 2 Art, and asked them for a business card. They are featured in this Edition…

Gary showed up around 9:00 a.m. and joined in with his pole picker. He also makes apple butter and promised to return with a couple of jars as soon as he makes it. A neighbor came over and offered up his pear tree which was full of readied Bartletts, soon Gary and I were on our way with ladder in tow.

Dan and Roosje came along and I was delighted to see the trees plucked of fruit as everyone was talking, picking, and enjoying the work. Roosje has a design studio in Langley called “Mind That Bird” also featured in this Edition…

There are still a few apples left at the very top of the trees, but for the most part, the old fruit-laden trees are bare and happy again.

I just loved sharing the bounty of the Autumn harvest, and I especially enjoyed meeting the folks in my back yard these last two days!

Until next year,

Cheers!