Community cider pressing pot-luck last weekend! I wasn’t there, but furrydoc took along a box of apples from my tree and took these pictures: First the apples were washed, either in a dilute bleach bath or a vinegar bath (for those who didn’t like the idea of bleach on their apples). Then into the grinder and the press. The juice went into buckets. The pulp was caught in cheesecloth and taken to the host family’s animals. The juice … … is incredible. And I’m not just saying that because it has my very own backyard apples in it. My apples…
Category: Gardening heaven forbid
Harvested the mystery-apple tree over the last three days! About 90 pounds of fruit. I have no idea whether that’s great or mediocre as apple trees go, but it’s fabulous for a tree that produced only one apple in the last two years. I got a fat lip when a rogue apple crashed down on my face. And there are still a few left at the top of the tree or in difficult-to-reach spots. But I’m pretty happy about this. Now what to do with all this bounty? Some I’ll store in boxes in the basement. Some I’ve promised to…
For those of you who care (and I suspect it’s a minority, although you’ve also been an extremely helpful minority), I think the apple tree in my backyard is a newtown pippin. Gads, there are zillions of apple varieties! And apparently very few people curious about them. (When I put the most relevant discriptive terms into startpage, my own August blog entry popped to the top of the results. Very helpful, that. 😉 ) But newtown pippin is what fits best, even though I can’t decide whether the aroma is piney. Or not piney. Piney? Who knew that apples had…
… or even you people who are reasonably competent at growing things, some advice, please. I bought my house two years ago (this Thursday). It has an apple tree in the back yard that’s very likely 100 years old and that has had no attention in decades. First year, it produced one — count ’em, one — apple. Last year, zero apples. Just when I was about to ask somebody to take it down, this summer it went apple crazy. From where I sit under the tree (or where I used to sit under it before it started getting dangerous)…
Our politicians should be so partisan! (H/T MJR) Another reason to have a dog. Or at least let the kidlets play in the dirt. Sweet dog-and-his-boy story via MamaLiberty. Oy. Now the security state is worried about drone hijackings. Me, I figure some of my friends could make better uses of drones than the gummint ever will. Bacon or bagel for breakfast? Well, if you don’t count the nitrates … Wendy McElroy has a new book out. Sounds like a must-read. Small-scale farming. Not just cool and trendy — but creating a new profit model? Considering relocating offshore? Panama just…
In the news you can use department: “Situational Awareness” by our own MamaLiberty. Nice work, Mama. Though I’d like to know more of the background of this particular incident, it appears that the War on Food continues to ravage the Country Formerly Known As the Land of the Free. (H/T/ JS) “A Biblical Threat to National Security.” And you plan to persuade Muslims how? that the U.S. military isn’t conducting a holy crusade against them? (Tip o’ hat to J.B.) “Who Destroyed the Middle Class?” Sooooooo, do you think PBS would report this sympathetically if a Caucasian family decided to…
From a recent comment section: Here’s advice from a guy who found himself on the receiving end of other peoples’ hurricane bug-outs. A family of six chronicles how and why they live on $28,000 per year. Its governor willing, South Dakota will join the states that have (something close to) constitutional carry. Naturally, the brave defenders of the people object. Maybe with good reason. “Quietly, Quietly, the Revolution Arrives.” I’ve been saving this up to use in a related ramble of my own. But it’s getting around and Wendy’s essay is too brilliant to neglect. Here’s the latest mini-clip from…
I turn the blog over this morning to two commentors at Earthineer: Oilman2, who says that small farmers (and by extension many more of us) should opt out. And Earthineer founder Dan Adams who answers that we should opt in.
… but in the healthiest way. That story about an innovative gardener comes from Alaska. Which reminds me … has anybody heard from Kevin Wilmeth lately? They had that beast of a storm up there and I wonder how he and any other more-or-less coastal Alaska readers are doing.
You’ve probably heard by now: Steve Jobs is dead. Farewell to an amazing innovator. He’s been part of our cultural wallpaper for such a long time it’s hard to believe he was only 56. Don’t know that I’d want to beta test a bank, but if you’re fed up with the Big Boys, here’s an interesting new alternative. Speaking of banks, the always-interesting Barry Ritholtz has a good take on their self-inflicted mark-to-make-believe wounds and other unintended consequences of Brilliant Government Ideas. Believe it or not Tim Burton did not create this wedding photo. (I was going to post the…