Apple Picking Time Again

I like every season of the year but harvest time brings a certain sense of accomplishment for the farmer in most of us.I planted a Spartan apple tree four years ago and it flourished. The area where I had room enough was protected from the cold winds and receives extra water from the run off from our back yard so the tree was spoiled.

This year we looked forward to a crop but nothing like the several bushels of apples we picked this morning.Deep red in color and hard with pure white flesh makes it a favourite with many.Our other tree is ten years old and quite ugly with a conservative leaning to the right but being a Northern Spy it is the very best for pies and apple sauce. Their lasting quality enables us to keep fresh apples until after Xmas by storing them in the garage.

We are half way  through the month of September and it is beginning to feel like fall as the temperature reached a low of 6 the other evening. I go into a cleanup mode and prepare the gardens for next spring. My biggest challenge this year will be the strawberries who have gotten out of hand this summer and I could not identify a row if I tried. I have to pull out the old plants and organize the rows again to facilitate picking.

There seems to be so much to do all of a sudden but the chores are really a labor of love as it brings us back to earth in more than one way. Mother Nature has a way of rewarding her friends so we who garden and work the soil have a front seat.