You guys! It was so good being in Minnesota with you. Aunt Sarah and I loved so much getting to spend time playing kickball, eating watermelon, and watching a musical performance. We just love you with all our hearts!
Since we got back to Colorado we’ve been busy trying to keep up with the crazy apple tree in our backyard.
When we moved into our new house this Spring we knew that there was some kind of apple tree in our backyard, but we didn’t know what kind it was or if it would put out many apples. I think we were just hoping that it wouldn’t be a crabapple tree 🙂 In the middle of the summer it started to look like there would be decent-sized apples — and a fair number of them — but it hasn’t been till the past month that the tree has really started kicking things into high gear. I mean, there are thousands of apples, and they’re huge! Every day we’ve been getting a bunch down, taste-testing as we go, and we’re starting to fill up a bunch of bushel baskets.
Unfortunately not all of the apples are keepers. There are a bunch that have had worms in them, so they’re full of holes; a number of them even have slugs crawling over them. Yuck. And once Sarah looked up and saw a squirrel eating one. As soon as the squirrel saw Sarah it started angrily chattering at her as if to say, “You’ve got enough. Leave me in peace to eat my apple!” Seems like all of God’s creatures love eating apples. Can’t blame them!
At this point we’ve got about four bushels full of keepers, and a few more bushels of ones that have little holes but that we’ll be able to use for baking. Sarah’s planning on making a really good recipe for apple crisp, so I figure we’ll have about a zillion pans of that delicious dessert. As for me, I’m planning on taking a bunch of apples to get pressed so that we’ll have gallons of apple cider for the fall. I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it.
Even with all the apples we’ve picked so far, I’d estimate that we’ve still got about 2/3 of the apples still in the tree. Once we get them all down, what do you all think we should do with them?
Love,
Your Uncle, Johnny Appleseed
