Backyard Chickens & Bees

Calville Blanc heirloom apple. Very tasty!

OK, so I guess it is time for something new. This past weekend during the CHIC get-together at our house, V and I were talking with Harriet and others about growing apples, and the difficulties of training grapevines. The subject was broached about pulling the grapes and planting apple trees instead, and since then, I have been obsessively researching antique apple varietals that are good for making classic styles of cider. Hard cider, that is. Also, the removal of the camellias opened up a lot of space, and I have a strong urge to fill it with new plants. My first thought was a bike lock-up area, more bee hives, and another raised bed, but now I am leaning towards the apples. And finally, V and I went to the apple tasting at Portland Nursery after CHIC and sampled some 60 types of apples and pears. That further opened my eyes to lots of different apple flavors that were, frankly, yummy.

I’ve been brewing beer for some 16+ years now, and the grapes were an attempt to diversify that experience. However, training the grapes to grow properly on their trellises has not been a strength of mine, and I have been increasingly frustrated with the difficulty of keeping them from growing crazy and all over the place, which they are wont to do. I know that apples also require a lot of time-consuming pruning and training to get them to consistently produce fruit, but it has got to be a lot easier than the grapes. Of course, I could probably make the grapes work next year if I set my mind to it, and, by actually watering them when it’s over 100 degrees out, ensure that I get a viable crop. However, I think the idea of making wine is becoming more and more intimidating. At least, given the idea that I would want a ‘good’ wine to be the outcome, making wine seems more and more difficult. Moving on to apples, at least, provides me with a few more years to experiment and refine my cider-making technique (starting this weekend with 700 lbs of apples!). As well, apples are a lot easier to come by in abundance, and I’m more likely to seek them out now that there is a neighborhood press available for making cider.

So, apple varieties are being researched. It’s a whole new world with all the vintage apple varietals that have been in use since forever. One of the types I am interested in putting into the yard, both as an eating/dessert apple as well as a cider adjunct, is a Roxbury Russet, whose origins in the USA trace back to the pilgrims in 1649! The other antique varietals that I am considering include Yarlington Mills, Dabinetts, Newtown Pippins, Kingston Blacks, and Brown Snouts, all of which date back to at least 1850 (I won’t be putting in all of these, this is just a short list of finalists). There seem to be a handful of places that carry them (list is below), so it’s mostly easy to find, but making a selection for a small plot of land is exceedingly difficult. Fortunately, I did find a fabulous site for cider research being done at the Mt Vernon branch of Washington State University. They have lots of trials, including pressing yield, specific gravity, and taste tests of final ciders, for several cider-centric apple types. Ah, I love university research! There is also a local Home Orchard Society that has been a great source of information and has lots of people willing to pitch in and answer questions. The choices for trees that I’ll put in is mostly based on those sites, along with lots of reading about the varietals and how they affect the cider flavor. Some of the more informative sites are:

1. Big Horse Creek Farms has a nice, long, comprehensive list of all the apple (and other fruiting) trees that they can graft. They require that you submit your request, which is then grafted and grown for a year, and then sent out as a bare root tree the following winter when they are all dormant. A great idea if you have a year to plan.
2. Cummins Nursery is located in New York State and is a father/son company based on years of research at Cornell University (where the father is still, I believe, a professor working on root stocks). They have a very large inventory available as bare root trees that are shipped while dormant (i.e., in the winter).
3. Trees of Antiquity has a large inventory, and great descriptions of the trees available.
4. Rain Tree Nursery has a ton of trees, including some heritage apples. Not as many as the other sites, but lots of additional information.
5. The Cider Portal offers a nice, scientific view of cider making.
6. And Orange Pippin is one of many online resources that covers descriptions of apple types and such.

And there it is. I’m pretty certain that the apples will go in this winter, and if all goes well, will have apples in about 2013. At least it’s never boring around here…

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