37/52 - Plums, Paddlewheels, and School Tricks

Fall is arriving quickly! Some of our fruit trees are starting to drop their fruit, indicating to us that we should pay attention to them or miss out entirely until next season. The apple and plum trees are loaded, probably because we didn't have them pruned this year.

Our favorite trees to harvest are the plums, one yellow and three Italian. Time to get picking!

Between the three of us, we picked about 4 baskets each of yellow and Italian plums. When we were done, our plum trees were empty.

While we were picking, we found this crazy looking caterpillar in the tree. It looked just like the woolly bears that I was used to from the East Coast, but I'd never seen one with those crazy white spikes.

My instinct was to kill it immediately - after all, what kind of caterpillar is good for fruit trees? - but I decided to hold on to it until I looked it up. Sure enough, it was a woolly bear. And they aren't as detrimental to fruit trees as I had assumed. So this one was spared after all (though I did move him to another section of the yard.)

Rather than try to process all of our plums immediately, we decided to cram the plums into the refrigerator and freezer to save for another day. It looks like we will have some canning sessions in our future.

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Here is the Anders quote of the week.

Donna was describing her latest computer-related woes at dinner one night, when Anders stopped her and said:

Grandma Donna, you should just S-M-I-L-E!

If that's what he's learning in school all day, then we're just fine with that.

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Corinne and I did a quick trip to Seattle for a wedding, leaving Anders in the hands of Grandma. But before we left, we all stopped for the White Salmon Fire Department's Huckleberry Pancake Breakfast.

He ate the whole thing.

While Corinne and I were in Seattle, Anders took a trip down the Columbia on the Sternwheeler with Grandma Donna, Aunt Patsy & Uncle Jim.

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Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's unofficial How to Get Anders To Talk About School idea contest. We had lots of different ideas and approaches.

Focus. Ask about something specific, like "Who did you sit with at lunch today?" or "What letter/number did you practice?"

Trickery. Make something up about their day and let them correct it with actual details: "Too bad it rained all day today. You probably couldn't play outside during recess." Or "I heard there was a monkey in class today."

Patience. Don't ask right after school. Wait until later in the evening. If they bring up something on their own, use that as a launching point.

And if all else fails:

Confinement. Put them in a confined space, such as the passenger seat in a car, and they will eventually spill the beans.

One person suggested asking the teacher for some sort of summary of topics and activities for the week, which seems like a good thing to pursue. Ultimately, the most important thing is that he still loves school. I'm sure we'll slowly figure out what he does there all day. We have discovered that during music they learned the S-M-I-L-E song (see above) and are dancing to the chicken dance. So, there's that.

In the public library; non-fiction section, of course

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Picking Apples

Fall means apple harvest in our orchard, and it was a pretty good orchard harvest last year in general. We had cherries for the first time, and apples were plentiful. The plums were virtually non-existent this year for some reason, but I guess we can't expect everything to be bountiful every year.

We did eat some apples fresh, but most were processed into applesauce. We used to go through the effort to can the applesauce, but it turns out that freezing applesauce is just as effective and a lot easier.

Anders loves applesauce, so it's pretty convenient that we have a reliable source of pesticide-free (though not bug-free) apples!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 11, 2009

Cherry Harvest

This is our fourth summer at River Ford Farm. Even though we have three cherry trees in our orchard we have never had a harvest. In previous years, each tree had no more than 20 or so cherries, and the birds always beat us to that measly crop. For some reason, this year one of the trees has finally produced a crop.

We had a wicked hot 4th of July weekend, but by Sunday evening the temperature had dropped somewhat. Relishing the nice weather, we decided to head out and harvest with help from some of our visitors, Uncle Jim & Julia. It turned out that Uncle Jim was expert help; back in his hippie days, he had picked cherries professionaly in the Flathead Valley of Montana.

We picked about 6 lbs of cherries. We're not sure what variety they are, since the orchard map that the previous owner left just says "Cherry". They have a sweet white flesh like Rainiers but turn completely red unlike Rainiers. They are quite tasty, although we do prefer darker cherries such as Vans.

As luck would have it Phyllis, the previous owner, stopped by a few days later so we were able to ask her about the variety. She couldn't quite remember but mentioned Queen Anne as a possibility. Comparing our cherries with photos on the internet confirms that they are Queen Annes, the variety used to make maraschino cherries. By this point we had already turned the cherries into jam, which is too bad. The next time we get a harvest, it would be fun to try making our own maraschinos. (Did you know that maraschino cherries are actually pickled!)

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

4th of July

For the Fourth of July this year we had a pretty full house, with Mom, Uncle Jim & Julia, Mark & Carol, Leif, Linda, and Fanda & Jarka ("The Czechs") all visiting.

The Czechs spend every summer in the Gorge on the river kiteboarding. When I saw them last year, I was very pregnant and not feeling very well (probably in the early stages of labor). Three days later, Anders was born! Amazing how time flies.

My maternal grandfather served in WWII and as such had a military burial. I have since received the American flag from his funeral. So on the 4th this year, we raised Grandpa's flag for the first time.

On the fourth, Mike, Anders and I attended a "Red, White and Blue" party hosted by friends Mark & Tifani. (Mike: I somehow managed to forget the theme and was thus the only person wearing a bright green shirt.) Our friends had just bought a bluff house in White Salmon that overlooks the Columbia River, and the location provided a nice view of the Hood River fireworks that are shot from a barge in the river. 4th of July on the Columbia River is reminiscent of our many 4ths along the Charles River. While Hood River's fireworks don't begin to match Boston's, they are impressive given the size of the community.

Mark and three others had just started a band and the party was their debut concert. They played their entire repertoire - 4 songs - and actually sounded great! Anders, who doesn't usually respond well to loud noices, was a trooper. He enjoyed the band as much as we did, and he didn't even cry over any of the home fireworks being set off just 15 feet away. In fact, he slept straight through most of the explosions.

As we were leaving the party, we had a good view of the hillside that the neighbors lit on fire with their fireworks. (Doh!)

Back at home, we spent a good portion of time hiding from the heat. We had some great meals together featuring the abundance of local berries in season, played several rounds of Bananagrams. And of course entertained and were entertained by Anders.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

So Much For Farm Help

Okay, I think we're overdue for a non-Rocket post on this blog! But somehow, I just can't think of anything that has happened in the last 3 weeks that doesn't involve him in some way. I guess that's what people mean when they say that "your life changes."

While we were in Seattle, fall arrived in Trout Lake. Most of the trees in the orchard had already dropped their fruit - most disappointingly, the Italian plum trees were just ripening when we left and were pretty much finished when we returned. But by far the biggest disappointment was the garden.

When we left for Seattle that weekend, we were only supposed to be gone for about 3 days. So I watered the garden a day or two before we left and planned to water it again when we returned. But of course, Rocket arrived early and changed those plans. If we had been able to return home sometime early that following week to water it, the garden would have been fine. But of course, Rocket had jaundice which kept us in Seattle for an additional week. We even might have been able to explain to someone the somewhat lengthy instructions for turning on the irrigation system, but by the time we realized that we weren't going to make it home as early as we had liked, it was too late.

I almost couldn't look at the result: wire cages full of tomatoes in various shades of red, just rotting on crispy brown vines; clusters of young squash under piles of shriveled leaves. But I keep reminding myself - it is much easier to buy tomatoes and squash than it is to buy a baby.

The main reason that we decided to have kids was so that we would have some additional farm help.¹ So far, that plan isn't working out so well.

- Mike (& Corinne & Anders)

¹ Okay, maybe not.

The Cider Press Rules

"A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity."

Alexander Smith

Sometimes you luck out and end up in the posterity category.

Our small orchard of 17 fruit trees - thanks to Vic and Phyllis - produced well this year. It looks like the pruning we did in the spring really helped. The orchard consists primarily of apple trees: Jonagold, Winter Banana, Northern Spy, Grimes Golden, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Criterion, Seek-No-Further, and a few others. Now is the time to harvest! We've been sharing our bountiful harvest with our neighbors, both human and otherwise.

First, the deer and coyote. The deer do a good job of cleaning up the fruit from the ground. Keeping the orchard "clean" during the off season will help prevent pests from becoming too big of a problem. (We did put up some pheromone traps in the early summer to try to limit coddling moth damage, but it's hard to tell what difference it made. Thankfully the larvae crawl directly to the core, damaging very little of the flesh, so the apples are still perfectly edible.) We haven't seen the coyote in the orchard, but he leaves plenty of evidence behind.

Between our neighbor Jack and ourselves (and the help of Jack's orchard ladder), we managed to fully pick the orchard this year. Our spare fridge is now stuffed full of apples which we plan to freeze, dry, and sauce. But the most exciting for Corinne is the fresh apple cider. Jack borrowed a cider press from a friend and invited us over for our very first cider pressing!

For those who have never pressed cider before (which before this weekend included us)... it's a two stage process. First, you feed the whole apples¹ into a hopper and crank a grinding wheel; the wheel has little ridges on it which break the apples up into chunks and they fall into a mesh bag inserted into a bottomless bucket. Once the bucket is full, a lid is inserted into the bucket and pressed down by turning a giant screw. The cider is pressed out the bottom of the bucket and runs down an incline into a pan at the bottom. And of course every few minutes you stop to empty the pan (and fill your glass!)

Over the course of a few hours the four of us pressed about 15 gallons or so. We now have a fridge and freezer full! YUM!



- Mike & Corinne

¹ But doesn't this mean there are probably worms in the apples, and thus worm juice in the cider? Yes, yes it does.

Do the Hornet Dance

After we finished chipping the two largest orchard slash piles, I hooked the chipper/shredder up to the back of the small tractor and pulled it to the third and final pile. I had moved this particular pile from its original, very prominent location next to the driveway to a less visible location on the edge of a stand of trees.

So I pulled the tractor up and backed the chipper into a spot next to the pile. We then decided that the best location for the chipper would be on the opposite side of the pile, to allow for easy transfer from pile to chipper, and a convenient deposit location for the chip. Since I had already disconnected the chipper from the tractor, and it would be awkward to maneuver it mechanically anyway, I grabbed hold of the chipper and proceeded to push it to its intended location.

Somewhere along the way, something strange started to happen.

At first, I didn't quite know what was going on, other than that it was bad. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was being stung - repeatedly. Instinctively, I started to run, probably flailing my arms and looking like an idiot. I think Corinne asked me if I was being stung, to which maybe I said yes. (It's kind of a blur at this point.)

As I'm running down the path, not knowing exactly what to do, Corinne yelled "Take your clothes off". Do what she says, I think, and I continue to run down the path flailing my arms, shaking my legs, and now depositing articles of clothing in a trail behind me. First my coat, then a shirt and belt, then the T-shirt, all while continuing to run.

Right about now I started to regain my senses, and my first thought was: should I really be taking my clothes off while being chased by a swarm of yellowjackets? I notice a particular pain on my left ankle, and when investigating discover that 2 of the little buggers have embedded themselves in my sock and the ankle beneath. After several seconds I manage to dislodge them.

Seeing no other immediate attackers, I begin to slowly backtrack along the trail. After checking each piece of clothing for infiltrators, I begin to re-clothe myself. Corinne is laughing heartily, and I can't help but agree, despite the pain. If only we had the video camera running.

We leave the coat on the ground where it fell, since it still contains 3 or 4 rather angry looking assailants. Heading back to the start of my little "dance", it becomes clear what happened. While pushing the chipper in front of me, one wheel rolled directly over an underground yellowjacket nest; seconds later, my foot planted directly on top of that same nest.

After a quick search through the various inherited chemicals in our shed, we manage to find a can of "Kill 'Em All" (or some such name) yellowjacket insecticide, and proceed to spray a good portion of it down into the nest. We're clearly not going to get any chipping done today, so we leave everything where it is and head in for the day.

Here comes the rather odd part. The very next day we come out to find that some animal has come along and completely dug the nest out. Thanks, friend, but you're a day late!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Black Cherry Harvest

In addition to the 40+ acres of fir and pine on our property, we have 3 acres of black cherry trees. Even though the tree is not native to this area, Vic decided to experiment with growing a hardwood, and black cherry seemed to be all the rage at the time.

The trees didn't turn out so well, at least from a commercial forestry point of view. Oh, they're still alive and growing, but they are growing very slowly and not very straight. But they still count towards our Forest Stewardship Plan, so replacing them is not high on our priority list.

They do produce fruit - tiny clusters of bitter fruit suitable mostly for cough syrup, at least in my opinion. Vic and Phyllis used to make jellies and such, so we decided we'd pick some and try our hand at turning our poor hardwood stand into something edible.

It didn't take more than an hour or so to pick a gallon or so of fruit between the two of us. The comb-like device in the photos is used to literally comb the berries off of the branch; the berries are fairly sturdy, so they survive intact.

We did some quick searching online and found a recipe for a black cherry jam. This particular recipe called for more than a 2:1 ratio of sugar to berries! After cooking the berries down and adding the sugar and some pectin, the result was indeed a jam, but didn't taste enough like the original fruit to make it worthwhile.

The rest of the berries were cooked down, but we haven't yet been combined them with anything else; the syrup now sits in our refrigerator and freezer waiting for a suitable purpose. If only it tasted good...

- Mike (& Corinne)

Chipping the Orchard Piles

Remember all of those piles of stuff that we made back in the spring? Well, we're finally getting around to them. (Some of them, anyway.)

Our friend, co-worker, and fellow organic high-altitude gardener Judith recently mentioned to us that her and her husband Rodney's air compressor had gone the fritz. She was looking for a temporary replacement so that she could finish a project; she also happens to have a small chipping/mulching machine. So we agreed to swap machines for a while, and we are now most of the way through chipping the slash from the spring orchard pruning. Corinne plans to put the chipped material around some of the trees in the yard, to suppress weeds.

We still haven't managed to buy a chipper of our own. So thanks, Judith & Rodney!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Spring == Piles

Spring is here, which means that there are lots of "spring cleaning" projects to do. What I have noticed, though, is that spring in the country is a time to create piles of... well, stuff.

Dirt
Our irrigation ditch had gradually filled with silt, and thus was not deep enough for the volume of water traveling through it. So we (actually, our neighbor who also shares this ditch) hired someone to dig it deeper.

But of course, that dirt has to go someplace... so half ended up in our yard, and half in our neighbor's. The blue tarp is there to kill the canary grass before we incorporate the dirt into our yard.

Orchard Slash
Our orchard pruning resulted in large piles of fruit wood. Initially we thought we'd be able to cut the majority of it up into kindling for the wood stove; but after several hours and little progress, we knew that these piles would be around at least until we had a chipper. (We haven't bought one yet.)

"Normal" Spring Cleaning
This is the kind of outdoor spring cleaning that most people do: pulling weeds and grass from flower beds, removing overgrown plants, etc. Donna came down for the weekend to help us out, and she really got into it. In the end, we decided to pull much of that ground cover out altogether and add it to our pile. The piles were then moved to a less visible pile hidden in the woods.

And just so you don't think that spring is nothing but piles of work:


- Mike (& Corinne)

An Orchard Makeover

One item that's been on our "to-do" list since we moved into this place is to prune our orchard. Pruning the trees has a number of benefits, including: improving the structural strength of the trees; improving fruit production on mature trees; and keeping the branches closer to the ground so that they are easier to pick.

As with many things on our property, we don't have a clue how to go about pruning fruit trees. Thankfully, our neighbor Pat coordinated hiring a few workers from the Mt Adams Orchard to do some pruning for a few of us in the neighborhood.

They didn't speak much English, but Pat was there to provide translation. Apparently, one of the first things they said when they arrived was: "Boy, these trees are ugly." They probably hadn't been pruned in 3-4 years, and I guess it really showed. Of course, we didn't know what they were supposed to look like, so they looked fine to us.

Once we agreed on a price, they got right to work. The two of them worked diligently for a total of about 8 hours to get our trees into shape. Hopefully we'll notice a difference! And if anybody needs some fruit tree brush, we now have several substantial piles of it.

Now if we can only keep the coddling moths off of the apples...

We'll now leave you of some great spring photographs Corinne took of our orchard blossoms (plus one of the rhubarb patch).



- Mike (& Corinne)