Sunday, February 17, 2008

At the orchard....
I know this is not exactly a fruit scene, but I do love this picture....when it is enlarged I just feel fall when I look at it.

The apples below are Arkansas Black--notice the little critter on the one. These spiders sort of jump--and they love Fuji apples! You might see one or two here and there in the orchard, but there are always more on the Fujis than all the rest of the orchard combined. Anyway, Arkansas Blacks are a gormet cooking apple, the taste will vary with how much rain we have had, and they are the hardest apple I have ever seen. I know I have NOT seen half the varieties, but believe me this is a solid apple. The people that tried them at the orchard seemed to either love them or hate them--no in between.
Now this picture below would probably be in the top ten favorites that I have ever taken...don't know if it that the picture is that good or if it is because I LOVE these apples--they are Blushing Golden. They are such a full rounded flavor...and so juicy. It was after the harvest one fall, and I was cleaning out under the trees--using a weedeater, etc. I was back in the farthest corner from the house and getting so hungry, but didn't want to stop before I finished. I found one of these apples, ate it, and have loved them ever since.These apples are EarliBlaze--an early cooking apple. We used to could count on starting picking them around August 20th. The past few years what few they have left is usually picked right around August 1...these are not necessarily a favorite apple of mine. I just like the picture.