A few days ago I shaved off all my hair off after having it cut last in a swamp in Florida with a swiss army knife on my 20th birthday by my then 36 year old girlfriend. Turns out that my new girlfriend was born that year lol. One pretty consistent thing about me is I do what I want and screw all ya'll if you don't like it! This is mostly about Punk and how it influenced me to live differently and ultimately pursue self reliance related things. Also, about what it was like to run around with dreadlocks when white people very rarely had them and most people still didn't know what they were. It was an exercise in cultivating the ability to be articulate and disarming. Here's to Steven version 7.0 which will probably go through revisions pretty rapidly.
Thinning Apples, No Place for Dummy Rules
As many know already, I'm not a big fan of what I call dummy rules. The dummy rule phenomenon as roughly defined by me, is a broad rule statement with either minimal context, or lack of context, stated dogmatically without qualification as a should and/or shouldn't proposition. As a social phenomenon, the less experienced will often take these absolute statements as absolute, which shouldn't be surprising, and use them as both weapon and battlecry in their petty wars on "misinformation" against people like me with enough experience to understand that there are such things as nuance and context. Lol, good luck with that.
Rules of thumb are a different matter. Many dummy rules probably start as rules of thumb, or contextual statements and are mutated into nonsensical dogmas that retain just an "element of truth". If I were a different kind of person this article and video could be more along the lines of... "Today I'm going to show you how to "properly" thin apples. Thin the apples when they are such and such size to such and such distance apart." But alas, life is more complicated than that, as we all find out when we start doing things and not just reading about them. I think I remember reading in Michael Phillips book on apple growing (but am too lazy to look it up) that there was a study showing a diminishing finished apple size if you thinned the trees after applets reached the size of a nickle. In other words, if you wait too long to thin, the remaining fruit may not grow as large as it would if you thin early. Let's assume I remember correctly for argument's sake. It would be easy enough to take that and create a dogma.. "always thin you apples by the time they reach the size of a nickle!". Not to say Michael said that, which I doubt, but this information can easily lead to that kind of thinking.
Context, however, may dictate other approaches. First off, all apples do not set at the same time on a tree, so there are can be a large variation in size. Should I thin everything for sure as soon as the first apples reach the size of a nickle? Maybe I average that out and and let some get to the size of a quarter and thin when most of the apples are around nickle sized. Maybe I thin early, because I have time and may not have time later. Another thing experience teaches is that I may want to give diseases, pests, weather phenomenon or other environmental factors a little extra time to beat up on my fruitlets, so I can thin the resulting damaged ones, and leave the ones that have remained unscathed in early summer. Now we are in the realm of real life, life as art and as adaptation and cumulative knowledge... the realm of context.
I use the handspan rule-of-thumb quite a bit when thinning apples. That is to say that a good distance for apples along a limb is about a span of thumb to pinky extended, like the Shaka/Hang Loose hand gesture of Hawaiians and surfers, about 7 or 8 inches. But, that is a contextual guideline, not a dogma. So many different things can affect the decision of spacing, and the decision to leave or not leave pairs or even three or four apples in a cluster. If I say simply a handspan apart, but there are only 20 apples on the tree and thinning to singles at hand spans would leave 5, that would just be dumb. Also, how large is the fruit of said apple variety? I'm not going to use the same spacing on a 1.5 inch apple variety as I would on 3 inch apple varieties.
The hang loose rule of thumb (and forefinger :) is an okay reference point. Good when there are a lot of apples widely distributed on the tree.
Another thing to think about is how much you are likely to lose early in the season to burrowing insects, birds and other diseases, pests and phenomena. Maybe I'll leave a few extra for now and thin more off later. Finally, where are the apples located on the branch? If they are gregariously clustered into denser groups, then I might space actual apples closer and be looking to leave an amount that would be similar to what would be left with an apple every 7 inches along the branch if they were spaced perfectly all over the tree. The handspan is a very useful guideline, but it is just a point of reference that not only doesn't always just play out like clockwork in real life, but probably rarely does so. So, it is not the spacing itself that matters, but total fruit load, placement, environment, goals, style, timing and so on.
Lets back up a bit here, thinning can be done for the following reasons.
To get rid of diseased, oddly shaped, damaged and poorly pollinated apples. Worthwhile even if the tree is not crowded.
To avoid fruit touching one another on the tree. Touching fruit is a common site for insect infestation.
To avoid broken branches. Overbearing is probably the most common cause of broken branches.
To increase the average fruit size. Very important in commercial production, though few home producers are much concerned.
To spare the resources of the tree, which can encourage yearly cropping instead every-other-year cropping. Most trees left to their own natural tendencies will fall into biennial cropping.
When I approach a tree for thinning, I look at several things right away.
How big are the applets? It is tempting to thin early, but I like to wait a bit so that scab can take hold and become obviously visible, bugs can do a little damage, unpollinated or poorly pollinated applets can be rejected and our hail season is more likely to be past us. That way I can take out all those newly damaged apples, leaving a sizeable crop of good ones. The information about thinning by the time apples reach nickle size is only one piece of information in these decisions, assuming it's true that is. The rest has to be intuition, experience and as much as anything guesswork. Personally, I hardly blink about fruitlet size until quite a few start to hit quarter size or start going over.
Very small fruitlets are more difficult to assess. As they grow larger, scab, asymmetry and any other defects become more obvious. When still very small, the unfertilized fruitlets and other rejects will not have been cut off by the tree yet. It can take a while for them to show obvious signs of rejection, such as ceasing to grow and yellowing stems. So, at minimum, it is only reasonable to wait until rejection is obvious. When a little larger (center), defects like scab, lopsidedness and other damage are easier to spot when thinning fruits at a high pace. The apple on the right has already suffered bird damage on June 8th. Leaving a little extra fruit can absorb some of this later damage from birds, insects, hail, diseases or whatever menaces you have around your part of the world. A piece of information saying that thinning early favors fruit size of remaining fruit is useful to have, but it is wise to ask "in what context is that information useful".
How many fruits are on the tree? A lot of fruits on the tree means larger overall spacings between apples, relative to the normal fruit size of that variety of course. If there are very few, I will leave them close together and even in clusters. It is better not to leave doubles and clusters, because it's a favorite place for insects to lay eggs or set up camp, however, again with the context.
While I prefer not to leave apples touching each other, my allegiance here is to the seeds inside these hand pollinated apples, Suntan x Grenadine. In other cases I many have only a few apples of a variety and I'll take my chances that a moth will lay eggs in between two or three apples or bag them very early.
How large is the branch? How much weight will it support?
These apples are too crowded. William's Pride is a quite large variety and the combined weight of these at maturity could break this small branch. I thinned some more off today, but not to an "ideal" number. These are well past recommended thinning size, but the apples were already pre-thinned once and a late second thinning can give time for damage and depredation to occur as well as for physiological problems to show up. Thinning apples adequately and early may result in increased size of the remaining fruit, but size is not usually very important to home growers. It certainly isn't to me. Birds ravage this variety every year, and bird damage will start any time now. Leaving some extra fruit will ultimately mean that I eat more apples. In that context I don't care how big they are. Last year I probably ate one or two mangled partial apples off this tree. The rest were bird, raccoon and possum food.
Am I greedy this year, or striving to maintain annual bearing? Or maybe I just DGAF. Most trees will fall into biennial bearing easily, meaning that they will produce a lot one year and little to no fruit the next. The tools you can use to try to prevent that scenario are adequate thinning and good cultural care. Unless I make a real effort, most of my trees are going to be pretty biennial, because my cultural conditions are not great. I can live with having king david apples only once every other year. I've got bigger problems to tackle. In a more ideal world, I'd try to get crops more consistently.
Thinning apples, just like training and pruning trees is more art than science for a small holder like me. It is different in the context of monocropping, where there is more repeatability and predictability. For the average backyard and home orchardist, thinning in a couple of phases works pretty good. In fact, after editing through my video and writing this, I think that is a great approach to recommend and ultimately something like what I practice. Thinning in two stages takes off a lot of pressure for those just learning about this task, who will always want to leave too much fruit anyway. It also encourages observation which can help inform future work. Go through quickly once when the apples are maybe dime to nickle size for the most part, and do the majority of the thinning. Leave the best looking undamaged fruits and some extra keeping in mind a final mature number of apples as the equivalent of an apple every 6 to 8 inches along the fruiting branches.
Come back in two or three weeks and you'll start to see that there is more fruit there than you thought you left. Take out a little more and some that have taken damage or where flaws have become more apparent. A stroll through your trees every few weeks will allow you to see the results of your practice and give a chance to keep removing damaged fruits. I pick off wormy and bird pecked fruit through the growing season. Everyone has those right? If not, where do you live?, I'm moving there buddy! Your context is your own. Don't over-think it, obsess, or spend too much time deciding what fruitlets to leave or how many, but don't under-think it either, because it does require forethought and knowledge. As small scale growers we may often be able to afford the luxury of these pleasant strolls to micromanage the fruit over a period of time and observe the effects of our activity. I love thinning my apples and checking on their progress.
I'd be interested to hear from others of you that have thinned apples for a while and what kind of rules of thumb you use or how your context and life affect your approach to thinning fruit. Happy growing and best wishes for a good fruit season. <3
While I don't lose a lot of sleep over fruitlet size when thinning, I don't like to see many clusters of apples up to an inch and more like this one. Some significant resources of the tree must be wasted in thinning and it can become more difficult as the fruits and stems crowd and mature. Yet, it often happens. It's just hard to get to everything on time. Now that this blog post and video are laid to rest, the next week should see me on daily thinning patrols, managing the largest fruitlets first and catching up with everything else as things mature. Right now they range all the way from 3/8 inch up to 1-1/2 inches or more and already taking some bird damage. With over 200 varieties of apples on the homestead here now, I have a long flowering season, which means that my situation is very different from a well managed orchard of one variety where the trees are best thinned in one pass during a short time. Context is king!
Biochar Chats, Q&A and Talking Points
I have gotten a lot of questions about biochar stuff. Common questions concern crushing, pre-charging, quantities to use, how does it work and so on. This video was just me trying to quickly discuss some of that stuff. Many questions I can't answer. I know very little technical information about biochar. I'm not up on the latest theories and research. I'm mostly interested right now in how it works here using simple methods of production and applications, and what percentages I want to use; and by extension approaches to experimentation and production that might suit average people well. Setting up experiments for long term observations is of great interest to me as well. I probably am going out of my way not to consume too much information on biochar. For one thing, it's boring. Also though, I often prefer to work with minimal information. It forces me to observe and think a lot and not be overly polluted with the stuff. I know that probably seems counter intuitive to a lot of people. Why not take in all the data, parse it and try to put it to best use? Because information influences our thinking and behavior and not always in a good way. It changes our lines of thinking and thus our experiments. Possibly for the better at times, but not always. Assessing the relevance and veracity of quantities of complex information is not a clear cut easy task. I remember one time coming to the idea that early inventors, like Tesla or Rife lets say, were so innovative because they hadn't learned what was and wasn't possible yet. A major problem causing stagnation of progress is the institutionalization of ideas and dogmatic sub cultures. These cliques form a sort of immune system or armor to deal with information that doesn't agree with a standardized dogma or theory. Open inquiry in groups of study are not the norm. I wonder if that idea is even close to achievable actually. We all operate in an invisible matrix of language and social constructs, but I think there are things we can do to think more freely and information consumption has something to do with that.
Information is a double edged sword. Information could be seen as having a place on a scale that runs from straight untested raw information on one end to thoroughly proven information on the other, or what we might call hard verified fact. Placing any information on that scale as to the level of confidence you have in it's veracity is not necessarily an easy task. Much (probably most) information, if viewed honestly, floats in limbo remaining of very unknown status on this scale of confidence. Simply knowing that much of information is best considered to be in that limbo is helpful, but if we consume it, it still influences us. My modus operandi is basically consumption of small amounts of information and then long, un-rushed, experimentation, observation and contemplation. I didn't develop this approach as a theory, I just noticed that I did it as a preference and now it's more of a conscious philosophy. I think it forces me to think of things in my terms and context more than someone else's, or in a group's. I think it also cultivates intuition, which I'm a big fan of. My observations or theories on biochar may or may not be verified by future information and cross pollination with other explorers and researchers, but either outcome is instructive in some way.
All of which I started to say because this isn't me spitting out a series of stuff that I learned by research, so much as thoughts and observations and ways to think about the problem. The important thing with this sort of activity, at least from an on the ground application standpoint, is does it work, rather than how does it work. How it works could be very useful for informing our practice, but for now, we have good archeaologic and historic records to indicate the efficacy of char modified soils. Normal people with simple means can attempt to replicate those results without over complicating the thing, because it is unlikely that these ancients were operating on some very sophisticated principals of production, application and technical understanding. We can always build and modify our knowledge and practice from there. Sometimes the best solution remains the simple solution.
To Kill a Turkey With a Turkey Wing, Bone Hunting Call
The beautiful, if somewhat goofy, Wild Turkeys are residents of my part of the country. Apparently they are relatively recent immigrants, but they are well entrenched and seem very well adapted to the country. In spite of the name, the Turkey is a native of North America. They are a popular game bird, fun to hunt, and delicious to eat. The feathers could hardly be surpassed for use as both quill pens and as fletchings for arrows. I also use the tail feathers to make quicky disposable paint brushes of two different kinds. All in all a very useful creature in traditional living. One of the most fun crafty things to do with a dead turkey though is turkey wing bone calls.
It seems a poetic injustice that you can call a turkey in with a call made from a turkey, but these calls are quite effective. I get the majority of my turkeys by calling them to me with these calls. Others I just locate with the call, or failing to call them in, I am able to sneak up on them, or head them off as they travel. The call is meant to imitate a turkey hen. They don't sound exactly like a hen (at least not when I'm using them!) but hey, the proof is in the pudding and if they didn't work, I'd eat a lot less turkey. No doubt I could refine my technique, but I lack incentive, because my technique is effective enough for the time being. A horny turkey that has been working itself up into a turkeystosterone fueled frenzy for weeks is often less than discriminating when something resembling the plaintiff cry of a Turkey hen in need a of a good mating pierces the air.
The calls are made from three of the wing bones on one side of the Turkey. There are three sections to a bird wing. The outermost, smallest, pointed wing tip section is discarded. The middle section contains two of the bones used and the large base section contains the third bone. I have never used domestic turkey bones to make one of these, but I imagine you could make one well enough to at least bag a wild turkey to make another. No doubt a mature wild turkey's bones will be more developed and substantial than a young fast grown turkey fed on a diet designed to achieve eating size as quickly as possible. Same as a chicken. You can eat the ends off of a domestic chicken bone and crush the remainder with your teeth, but try that with one of my mature free range chickens and you'll break a tooth. If domestic turkey bones would work, this could make a great project for kids.
12 years ago when I first moved here.
How You Will Cut Yourself Splitting Kindling, and How Not To
Injuries while splitting kindling are fairly common. There are only so many basic things that can go wrong though and avoiding injury shouldn't be too difficult.
Smart Fruit Tree Training, Toward Better Methods and Clearer Goals
Hello friends. I've been out of it lately, forgetting to post stuff, but I'm back with something paradigm shifting. If you don't already expect to see next level, envelope pushing content from me on a semi-regular basis, you can start any time lol. Here are 3 videos that are a first installment on the subject of training up fruit trees.
You can also keep up with the Smart Tree Training Playlist for this subject on youtube here. All videos related to training trees will be added there in the future.
People of my personality type think that everything can be improved. We can seem contrary by nature, sometimes to a fault, but that is just an immature expression of our nature to question and experiment. Now that geeks and freaks are more and more influential via technology and the information age, the new paradigm is open source. It's not just a practice, it's a way of thinking. It's my way of thinking and it's about time it started gaining some traction! This new paradigm can come about because we now get less of our information through dogmatic, institutional channels which act as filters and tend toward conservatism. Also, people that have knowledge and ideas to offer can much more easily get those ideas out. Information can not only proliferate quickly and easily now, but we have forums to hash out ideas and share experience and experiments, which creates a crucible for testing information and ideas. In spite of the huge preponderance of weak and incorrect information proliferating on the internet, this more positive side of the information age is having a profound effect on human knowledge and progress. It is my hope that we will continue to mature in our thinking, and in our vetting and processing of information.
We can't think about and become experts on everything, but we also don't have to buy everything that is handed to us as if someone has figured it all out. We should be skeptical and critical in a constructive way. In the case for fruit tree training methods, the same basic rudimentary approach has been in use for a very long time, with minor variations and minimal dissidence in spite often achieving poor to mediocre results over an unnecessarily long span of time. I used those methods for years and found them unsatisfactory, so I began to tinker with other possibilities. Then I found a brilliant study that was done from around 1925 to 1930 that completely changed everything. To quote the authors of that study, A Study of the Framework of the Apple Tree and it's Relation to Longevity, 1932:
“That improvement in methods of heading fruit trees is desirable is evident from even a casual study of bearing apple orchards, where a certain proportion of the trees will be found breaking down from causes that can be traced directly to the way the young tree was trained.”
“The central leader type of tree has been the expressed preference of Illinois growers. Nevertheless, most of the heads in Illinois commercial orchards are vase shaped.”
The authors found that while growers expressed a definite preference for one type of tree, the practice of cutting back on planting, known as a heading cut, was producing an entirely different type of tree. In spite of the practice having a high failure rate, the orchardists continued the practice anyway, and it is still the main technique in use today. Adopting their recommendations and tweaking them improved my results and the time from new tree to framework radically, so I am very enthused about continuing to experiment and add to those methods.
I had already been experimenting with notching buds and shoots to encourage them to grow, but these guys took an altogether more divergent approach to training that bucked one of the fundamental dogmas of tree planting and training, namely, that the tree must be cut back on planting. This is the most sacred dogma of tree training. Cutting back is said to balance the root and top, create a more stocky tree with a thick enough stem, and stimulate branching below the cut. No doubt it can do all of those things, but are they actually necessary? They put that question to the test rather than accepting it and found that it was not necessary to cut the trees back, which I have so far confirmed. The authors surveyed the available literature both current and historical, interviewed orchardists and examined orchards to see what was actually happening all the way from initial training, through to failure of the trees. After those important initial stems which helped define the problem, they designed experiments to test alternative tree training techniques, and ultimately developed a set of recommendations for improvements in tree training that avoided the common tree failures caused in early training. They were able to achieve the desired tree forms more assuredly, resulting in a well formed, well balanced, long lived tree in a short space of time. Bravo!
While the study gave specific recommendations on what to do in training apple trees and some suggestions regarding the training of different varieties, it is far from the final word on the subject. I've already improved it, just by adding notching and transferring the same and similar principals to further establishing specific goals for the secondary scaffolds. I've also already thought up lists of potential trials and experiments to answer a growing number of questions about variations on their methods, alternative techniques and how different fruit tree species respond to various interventions. The authors would have thought this was the thing to do, you advance the work. I've used notching quite a lot on various different species of fruit, but the original study was on apples and that has also been my main experience so far. More experimental trials are needed to assess these and other techniques on other species.
I'm super stoked if I can help my blog readers and youtube viewers train their trees better, but I have my sights set on much bigger game, the mastodon of common training recommendations, which I refer to as "clip and pray". It honestly would be hard to do worse than these common recommendations and even the simple training used to set the trees up in these first videos could go a long way toward improving outcomes. My main goal would be to evolve informed, but simple and accessible "systems" of sorts for mass consumption with a 3 to 4 year plan using a small number of easy to understand tools and goals. On the back end, I'd like to see a continuing evolution of understanding about how different fruit tree species grow and respond to various interventions. Maybe more importantly though, I want to see a paradigm shift in thinking about what we are doing in fruit tree training, and why. The essence of that philosophic understanding is still evolving, but here are my basic thoughts now. I've been thinking of the process as guiding a finite amount of resources or growth energy of the tree to achieve very specific goals. The tree can only grow so much in a year. Where are you going to encourage that growth to go and what techniques can be use to convince the tree to favor growth in those areas. Another important concept is creating some kind of balance in growth between parts of the tree. This balance can vary in form and degree, but we all know drastic imbalance when we see it. Training is often approached somewhat haphazardly. By having specific goals in mind and reasons for having those goals, we can then apply the tools we have available to make that tree form happen.
There is much to say and I hope to keep producing videos and essays or lectures on this subject.
The full fruit tree framework study is available to download on the free stuff page
In the meantime, the simple recommendations and information given in these first few videos could go a long way toward improving fruit tree training for home orchardists. Results will absolutely vary by species and variety, and no doubt by environmental conditions as well. The tools presented are not new and they were not new in 1925 either. But the obvious is not always so obvious and for whatever reasons, I've never seen anything like this presented anywhere. I'm calling it Smart Tree Training and hopefully that name will stick. It is a great name I think for a non-specific collaborative project that aims to take an informed and goal oriented approach to the problem of fruit tree training. I feel confident in saying that you can help me improve the practice and outcome of fruit tree training by sharing this information as it comes out, through appropriate channels where it will be put to use.
Apple Pollen Available for Breeding
I collected apple pollen this year, which is now available in the store here. This is pollen from select varieties that I use in breeding or consider interesting enough to use. The quantities are small as it is rather time consuming and many are in limited quantity, especially since I'm also pollinating a lot of blossoms this year in that hopes that I will have apple seeds to sell in the fall that are specific hybrids between carefully chosen parents. Fingers crossed on that, but for now we have pollen. If used carefully, this small amount of pollen can go a long way. Very little needs to be applied to the female parts to achieve pollination. You can read about the varieties on the store page.
I have stored pollen for a year and used it the following spring successfully, but at other times it has not seemed to work as well. But that is in a room with very large temperature swings and extremely hot in the summer. If you were to freeze the dried pollen I think it would probably keep well enough until the following spring. The pollen must be absolutely dry for any kind of storage and a desiccant of some kind would probably help with that. Some use rice, or those little desiccant capsules that come in jars of vitamins. Just remember that whatever you use, your small amount of precious pollen will probably stick to it.
Here is a short video on how I pollinate apple blossoms for breeding now. Good luck to anyone trying to do cross pollinations this year!
Peasant King and My Tree Collard Selection Project
About 5 years ago, a friend gave me some tree collard seeds from Montenegro. Some years since planting those seeds, I’ve selected one seedling that stands out from the rest to name, propagate and distribute. I have ostentatiously and awesomely dubbed it Peasant King.
Tree collards are a perennial vegetable also variously known by other names like Tree Kale, Palm Cabbage, Walking Stick Kale, Tree Cabbage and no doubt more. They are something like collard greens or Broccoli leaves, except that they grow all year for multiple years without flowering eventually becoming very tall. They could be compared to regular collards, but generally are heavier in texture and maybe stronger flavored. I also suspect they might be more nutritious, but who knows without an analysis, and I don't know that it's been done. Tree Collards are a member of the species Brassica Oleracea, which includes, Broccoli, most Kales (not siberian or red russian, which are Brassica napus species), Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, Brussel's Sprouts, Cabbage and Collards. Many people are surprised to find out that these are all the same species of plant and and as such can inter-pollinate. The only reason that lets say a cauliflower and a kale plant look and act so different is that they have been bred for different characteristics for a very long time.
"In Jersey, the Palm Cabbage is much cultivated, and reaches a considerable height. In La Vendée, the Cæsarean Cow Cabbage grows sixteen feet high." PLANT LORE, LEGENDS, and LYRICS, RICHARD FOLKARD, JUN. 1884 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44638/44638-h/44638-h.htm
Tree Collards are traditionally grown in various parts of the world as fodder for both humans and animals. They probably originated in the British Isles. A variety referred to locally as Purple Tree Collard has been grown in my area by both old and young back to the land types for a long time, but they are generally propagated by cuttings, not seeds. That is because the particular purple tree collard that is grown around here rarely sets any seed. Flowering is not very common to start with and they flower only weakly when they flower at all. Also, they don’t seem to pollinate themselves and I suspect they may only set seed when pollinated by another genetically unique variety of tree collard or other member of the Brassica Oleracea group.
When I got these rare and unique seeds, I saw it as a chance to find out if the trait of resistance to flowering was transferable, with an eye to selecting out some new perennial varieties worthy of propagation by cuttings. I grew out around 35 new plants in some out-of-the-way long term test beds. I was impressed early in their growth that many of the plants seemed more vigorous than the standard tree collard I had been growing for years. I wondered if our tree collards had picked up virus or genetic damage that caused them to grow more weakly. I won’t be 100% sure if the average plant is more vigorous unless I grow multiple varieties side by side with the old type. What I'll probably do instead is yank out all of my old Purple Tree Collards so that they don’t infect my new varieties if they are carrying something infectious.
Peasant King shows much darker purple and more completely colored leaves than the average seedling in the group. The leaves also average much larger. More average leaves are to the left.
Out of those 35-ish plants, I have selected just one so far that is clearly superior by a combination of leaf size, color, shape, vigor, uprightness and resistance to bolting. It has beautiful, large, dark purple leaves. While most of the seedlings more or less resemble the purple tree collard grown here, they vary in color, with a few being more or less purple. The old cuttings everyone grows here are partially purple, but probably average 50% or more green. My new selection is among the most completely purple of this seed population, though, like all of them, there are green patches. Keep in mind that the color trait will vary somewhat with weather, soil and culture. The leaf shape is a little more frilly and rounded as well. All in all, it stands out from the crowd in it's physical attributes, and if random leaves are picked from all of the plants, it's leaves are easily distinguishable from the rest
The original plant is now about 7 feet tall at 4 years old. it is not the tallest, but that may be just as well. I think a combination of tall and short types might be best scenario in terms of design options for gardens. It has resisted flowering through at least two hot California summers with no water, and two of the worst drought years in living memory. Those trial beds have also gotten very little fertilizer past the initial establishment. The conditions I’ve grown these in shows out just how tough these plants are. We have no significant rain for usually about 5 or 6 months of the year, depending on the year, yet the percentage of plant loss to drouth was not all that high. Heavy environmental stress often causes plants to flower, probably as a reproductive imperative- as in, "I might die, I better make babies to pass no my genes". Growing these under these challenging conditions creates heavy selection pressure to weed out the weak plants.
I named the variety Peasant King because it is tall, with a beautiful crown of royal purple leaves, and tree collards are the epitome of healthy old school peasant food. My home girl Sophia Bates acquired these seeds, which were gifted to her by the Matron of the farm she was staying at in Montenegro. She said that they are a regular staple among the farming folks of that region and are grown in every nook and cranny of the homestead that is not used for anything else. They are pretty neat. A tough resilient plant that is easy to propagate from cuttings, is very nutritious and grows with little care in out of the way spots. To boot, it looks cool. I think further trial will show Peasant King to be more upright and handsome than the usual collards. Only further trial will tell us for sure, or whether it will show out some other problems such as susceptibility to pests or disease.
So what’s the down side? Some people don’t like them for one. They are also not very hardy. John Jeavons of Ecololgy action, a long time promoter of tree collard growing, says the usual purple tree collard can freeze out below 18 degrees Fahrenheit for extended periods I do not recommend trying to grow them in areas where they don’t really want to grow, but see below for possibly more hardy options. Being perennial, they can be host to long term pests, like aphids. I have gotten aphids and if I recall, maybe some fungal disease on my Purple Tree Collards in the past, but they always seem to outgrow everything eventually. Once I can grow more of them and get them to some other people, we will find out how they fare in the long run. I hope to have cuttings of Peasant King to offer in the next year or two. I should be rooting cuttings within a couple of months to grow more plants, to make yet more cuttings to distribute. The first available cuttings will go to a combination of influencer types and content creators and as usual my patreon supporters. Sometime after that I’ll probably distribute cuttings for at least a year or two as long as it keeps performing well here.
THE FUTURE
In doing research I ran across a blog comment somewhere by Chris Hommanics saying that he has been working with tree collard hybrids for some time. He had actually contacted me last year about getting me some apple scions, which I unfortunately wasn't able to take advantage of. Anyway, small world. It turns out he is offering a population of hybrid Tree Collard seed that he’s been working on. It is a randomly mixed hybrid pool of tree collards mixed with Kales and other oleracea types. The seeds are available for experimentation and can be acquired here. This seed offers a much more diverse genetic range, with improved texture and varying form. This looks like a really promising project. I also ran across a video by Plant Abundance on YouTube, showing a kale, tree collard hybrid which he grew from chance pollinations with Kale in his garden. I think the future of tree collards is likely more along these lines than the more traditional inbred line I’m working with. Only the future will tell if that is all good, but I’d say expect to see an explosion of tree Brassica diversity over the next two decades. The internet makes spreading knowledge and plant material so much easier than it used to be and new people are inspired every day to do backyard breeding and selection. Even a few years ago when I started this project, there wasn’t all the much about tree collards out there on the web. Now there are lots of videos and blog post. The internet has been good to the humble tree collard.
The seeds are still viable and I planted two flats this spring
My plan from here is to germinate a bunch more of this Montenegran tree collard seed. This time, I’m going to do a pre-selection in the flats, choosing only the healthiest looking vigorous seedlings. Then I’ll plant those in trial beds on a close spacing, of maybe 6 or 8 inches to do a second selection. The winners will be transplanted to trial beds and once established, I’ll neglect them, just like I neglected the current trial beds and see what survives and thrives. In the name of diversity and resilience, I would eventually like to select out three or more plants worthy of naming and propagating from cuttings. The seed stock I have here would also ideally be crossed with the common local purple tree collard as well, for some genetic refreshment, diversity and invigoration to the line, but I may leave that up to someone else. After that, if I continue working with them, it will probably be to hybridize in some other Oleracea varieties, like kales and maybe purple cabbage, and start growing those out. I think Chris Homanics said that about 25% of hybrids inherit the perennial trait of resistance to flowering, and I think my seedlings might show a pretty similar rate of inheritance of that characteristic. Transference of perenniality was my biggest question going into this project. Now that we know that the trait is transferable, even when crossed with other B. oleracea types that tend to seed quickly, it opens up a huge window of opportunity to work with perennial tree Kales and Collards.
If you want to experiment with breeding and or selection, tree collards should cross with other members of the Brassica oleracea group, including many kales, broccoli, cauliflower, collards and Brussel’s sprouts. There are hybrids of Brassica napus with Brassica oleracea, but I'm not sure how easy that is to achieve. The idea of a cross with the napus Russian or Siberian Kale is very intriguing though. Read more about those inter-species hybrids here.
Please don't contact me about cuttings unless maybe you are a collector or breeder that will in some way ultimately benefit others by distribution, education, research or breeding. If I have cuttings, they will be offered in the web store as they become available. Since the variety is named, it should get into circulation from other sources eventually, as long as it proves it's merit over time. I still have to look into options for release to the public. I'm going to check out the open source seed initiative, an organization which one of my gardening heroes Carol Deppe is involved in, but I still need to think about whether I think their whole concept is a good idea or not. My intuition tells me there is something wrong with the framework of the project, and that is usually the start of something lol. I'm also not sure if they do vegetatively propagated varieties. I have my own ideas about what the future of seeds and perennials, plant breeding, legal issues, the plant breeding community, and the broader gardening and orcharding culture could look like, but that's another bag of worms.
A Few Common Axe Handle Mistakes and What to Do About Them
On a recent snowy morning I answered a YouTube comment on axe handle breakage that led to a one take video shoot with a beautiful snowy background. Being conceived and shot in one morning, this is just a partial snapshot of the subject. It revolves around the specific problem of design factors contributing to handle breakage just below the axe eye. It could easily have snowballed into a multi-part series on axe handle function and design ideas, leading to yet another video or series on user contributions to breakage; but the snow melted and I couldn't throw out that beautiful backdrop, which some people actually thought was done with a green screen!
This is viewed primarily from the perspective of American axes, which are evolved in the direction of high performance with the consequence of increased delicacy. At least that is my current take on it. An axe is a system composed of a handle and head which creates some inherent problems. In America, the European axe systems that migrated here with early colonists eventually evolved toward higher performance creating narrower eyes that are inherently weaker than the wider ones they descended from. European axe eyes seem to have remained wider for the most part, often even when copying American patterns. In fact, I think the standard American axes are refined to a point where the handles could not be much thinner at the eye without becoming impractical for use with wooden handles, and some might argue that they already have become too thin. That is a subject for another time though. For now we will just look at, common problems that we see from both manufacturers and folks producing handles at home, which are easy enough to fix with some tuning up.
While there are a lot of people that understand some of this intuitively and practice it, I don't recall seeing it spelled out anywhere. It is my hope that this information will spread and eventually reach manufacturers, many of whom who are clearly not axe users. Most axe handles will need work out of the factory and that is fine, but the mistakes that are greater in concept and scale are costing a lot of handle breakages at the eye that are totally unnecessary. The essential problem is that manufacturers think they can just increase the thickness of the handle body to decrease handle breakage. When viewed as a dynamic system though, it quickly becomes obvious that doing so puts undue stress on the thin eye portion of the axe, instead of sharing the stress across the length of the handle. At some point, continuing to thin a handle will obviously reverse that problem and create excessive vulnerability in the handle's main body. That is really another level of this discussion though and one I purposefully avoided in this presentation. Another issue is that there are other types of stress that are incurred from different types of use or mishap that may be more likely to break the body of the handle. The grain of the wood and it's character is also at play. We are dealing with a tool that sees different types of stress at different times, has inherent problems that are not entirely solvable and involves an inconsistent natural material. Wood of even the best quality has fatal faults. We continue to use it for the same type of reasons I continue to use vacuum tubes in my stereo and guitar amps, and that is user experience. I personally also like wood because I can cut down a tree and make a new handle without relying on industrially produced products that I have to buy.
There is a lot of forgiving grey area in this problem and we don't have to engineer a perfect handle. But, we do need to avoid the largest mistakes being made and if we get a handle that has them, we can tune those problems down until we have something that is more comfortable to use for long periods of time and also reduces stress on the eye. I don't think I've seen a handle yet where the problem encountered was too little wood to work with!
Enough said here. While this video is incomplete, it presents some ideas that I think are important and which can go a long way toward practical solutions.
New Axe Cordwood Challenge Facebook Page
I've started a facebook page for the Axe Cordwood Challenge. We needed a destination of sorts to coalesce and interact as a community of people doing the same thing, sharing information and progress and discussing relevant stuff. I'm open to discussion of other axe reliant projects as long as they are all about axes and don't just happen to use an axe, for instance hewing with axes or building a log cabin using axes for the majority of the work. It's not for axe porn (at least not if unrelated to the challenge :) or general axe discussions, identification, collecting, restoration and all that stuff, because every other axe group I can find is dominated by that sort of thing to the point that posts about working axes and how axes work flounder or are rapidly buried.
It is a public group, so anyone can check it out, hang our or support participants. I would have preferred to have used a different platform, but facebook is easy and most people are on it already. I would like to move it someday, but am not in a position to set anything up elsewhere or paying for some kind of discussion board service to plug into the skillcult site. Maybe in the future.
In the Meantime... https://www.facebook.com/AxeCordwoodChallenge/
Tasting Two Long Keeping Apples Out of Storage in Early March, GoldRush and Pomo Sanel
Yesterday I pulled out two varieties of apple from storage to taste, GoldRush and Pomo Sanel. It is one thing to find apples that keep for a long time without rotting, but that does not mean they will retain flavor or keep a good eating texture. Some apples will actually gain flavor with maturity, at least to a point, but most will lose flavor.
GoldRush
These were picked later than they should have been. I suspect if picked earlier, they would store a little better.
Gold Rush is well known for keeping very well, even without refrigeration. I have specimens from the refrigerator as well as from a cold room. All were picked late The apples from the fridge have retained some crunch, though they are not like the super crispy apples that you might find in a grocery store this time of year. Those apples are stored under controlled conditions with inert gasses to hold them in stasis until they are shipped to stores. The flavor has developed well in storage. When this apple is first picked it is edgy and harsh. I wouldn't say the flavor has improved from a month ago, but it is still complex and full with enough acidity to get my attention.
The apples stored in the shed were wrinkled and drying out. None though showed any signs of decay. Their texture is rubbery, with no hint of mealiness. The flesh compresses, then starts to break into pieces. The flavor and sugar are concentrated and delicious. I could see storing a lot of these and drying the oldest left over fruits in the spring. They would be half dry already.
All in all GoldRush is an excellent home orchard apple, and should be considered in any small collection of varieties. It combines long keeping, flavor, good cultural traits and some disease resistance. Out of all my dwarf interstem trees, it has the best, easiest to care for, form and high vigor.
Pomo Sanel
Pomo Sanel is a rare apple, barely known among a few fruit enthusiasts in this area, let alone anywhere else.
Pomo Sanel was stored in the refrigerator. It gradually lost it's crispness. It is not meally or mushy, at least not yet, but all remnants of crispness are gone. I was hoping it would go rubbery instead, but it didn't. The flavor has changed, less complex, more appley, banana still prominent. There is some acidity, but the sprightliness is gone. I could eat plenty of these, but it is not equal to it's fridge mate at this point and will surely decline from here. Like GoldRush, it was probably harvested too late and might do better in storage if picked at an earlier stage, as soon as it reaches full size, but before the sugars develop.
Pomo Sanel, still a little lean and green, but closer to where it should probably be picked for long storage
Pomo Sanel's most interesting attribute is it's late ripening in late December or usually January here. Given it's high quality straight off the tree at that season, it's a winner here in my climate. Whether it will store well enough beyond 4 weeks or so if harvested earlier and treated well remains to be seen, but keeping up with the likes of Pink Lady and GoldRush is a tall order and it no doubt won't. A really good storage apple can be very good, even excellent, but it's still not the same as a tree ripened apple kissed by frost and brought into it's prime in cold weather, nor is the whole eating experience the same. That paradigm is where Pomo Sanel and hopefully it's offspring will shine. I sent out many seeds this winter all around the world, so everyone cross your fingers and we'll check in about 8 or 10 years from now.
I'm interested in breeding with both of these and have made some crosses. If I'm lucky, some of those seedling crosses might bear fruit this year.
How to Find Fruit Wood Scions for Grafting, Scion Exchanges and People to Trade Varieties With
I commonly get requests for scion wood or questions about where to find scions in general, or of a particular variety. Below are my best recommendations.
Scion Exchanges and Swaps
These are usually free, sometimes with a small entrance fee, but I've never heard of one where the scions are not free. There are more and more of them, though large areas of the U.S. still don't have any. Search the web for terms like scion exchange, scion swap, grafting class or grafting workshop along with your large city, state or region. If there are none nearby, maybe you can find some like minded people and eventually start one. To my way of thinking, there should be one within easy driving distance of everywhere :)
Online Trading, Fruit Communities and Fruit and Nut Organizations
Below are listed some online forums, destinations and organizations where people trade cuttings and seeds. They generally are also places to meet like minded people in your region. The best information and collaborations are often local.
!GROWING FRUIT’S SCION SOURCE PAGE! http://growingfruit.org/t/scionwood-s... I like this forum a lot. Friendly with a lot of knowledgeable people.
NORTH AMERICAN SCION EXCHANGE Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scion... Started by my Friends Andy and Little John because they had no nearby scion exchanges. There is a website too, but the facebook group is most active
NAFEX, North American Fruit Explorers: http://www.nafex.org/ A long standing organization of fruit variety enthusiasts.
MidFEX, Midwest Fruit Explorers: http://www.midfex.org/
CRFG, California Rare Fruit Growers: https://crfg.org/ Membership organization with multiple chapters up and down the state. CRFG scion swaps happen up and down the state over the winter.
Home Orchard Society (Pacific Northwest): http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/ An excellent organization for NorthWesterners. From what I hear, their scion swap is one of the largest and best in the country.
Temperate Orchard Society: Apparently cloned the enormous Nick Botner apple collection, so they should have over 2000 apple varieties. (scion sales) http://www.temperateorchardconservancy.org/contact-us/
DBG Scion Exchange, EDMONTON CANADA: https://dbgfruitgrowers.weebly.com/sc...
MOGFA, Maine Organic Farmers Association, Scion Exchange: http://www.mofga.org/Events/SeedSwapS...
SEEDS Durham North Carolina: http://www.seedsnc.org/2018/01/upcoming-grafting-workshop-scion-exchange/
WCFS, Western Cascade Fruit Society, Scion and Grafting Fair in March: http://wcfs.org/
Michigan Home Orchard group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mi-home-orchard Group by YouTube user Prof Kent for michigan folks.
Buying Scions
Finally, you can buy scions. They have become more expensive, but if you really want a variety and you can't find it anywhere else, it might be worthwhile. Also, once you get interesting varieties, it gives you trading leverage. I sell scions sometimes, but I rarely trade, because I'm not collecting much anymore. Also, the apples that remain on my wants list are very rare, some probably even extinct or at least lost. If you want a specific variety, just search the net for the variety name and the work scion. You might be surprised to find some for sale, or to find at least someone that grows that variety or has it for trade. If I have scions for trade, they will be in the webstore around January and February. Unless you have some amazing rare stuff to trade, don't contact me about trading. I like to help people and will go out of my way to help serious collectors and breeders, but I get way too many requests. If you can find it anywhere else, please do.
If were to make a list of scion wood sources, they would all be on this page on the GrowingFruit.org site anyway, so I'll just refer you there.... http://growingfruit.org/t/scionwood-sources/3346
Grafting, the collecting fruit varieties and scion trading are fast growing in popularity, and for good reason. It's always an adventure finding out about new varieties, tracking them down and fruiting them out. I hope it grows enormously in the future. It is important to the preservation of food plant diversity that everyday citizens grow, share, eat, talk about and even create many different varieties. Even at it's most diverse, the larger industrial food model will always lack true diversity and soul. When there are quite possibly tens of thousands of apple varieties, even 20 varieties in markets looks pretty weak.
Feel free to contact me or leave a comment if you know of other good online communities, organizations or annual scion exchanges. Happy hunting
A Review of Tanning, Leatherworking and Skin Related Books in My Collection
Below are Tanning and skin working related books collected by myself and Tamara Wilder over the years. The video version talks about these books and a little history and such. Some of them are broadly recommended, and some are only for people with certain specific interests.
Many, many books on Tanning, Glue Making and Leather working that are not listed here are available as free downloads from the Downloads page, SkillCult.com/freestuff
Buckskin, The Ancient Art of braintanning, Steven Edholm and Tamara Wilder, 1997:
The book I wrote with Tamara Wilder in 1997. From what I've seen, it is probably the longest and most detailed book on home tanning to date, especially considering it's focus. As of writing this, it is currently out of print with plans to revise and re-print in digital and print forms. Covers wetscrape braintanning, with some satellite subjects like sharpening and dyeing buckskin with natural materials. If you've read it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.
Deerskins Into Buckskins, Matt Richards, 1997:
Published the same year as our book, this one also covers the wetscrape method, but focused on bucking, which is using alkali to soak the hide instead of water. It is the best, if not only, book reference for that technique. There is also a companion DVD.
Traditional Tanning Leather and Furskin, Lotta Rahme, 2014:
This would probably be my number one recommendation of a book on general tanning covering a lot of ground and many methods. It has lots of anecdotes and tidbits on traditional tanning from various parts of the world, and good basic information on tanning chemistry and theory. If a person were interested in braintanning primarily, they should get a book on that subject. This may be currently the best single book reference for vegetable (bark) tanning. Lotta is an experienced, small production tanner, with her own micro-tannery, so she has real insight, skill and knowledge to offer.
Fish Leather Tanning and Sewing, Lotta Rahme, 2006:
Lotta's cool book on tanning fish skins. This is a popular subject. I keep hearing about and seeing more and more fish leather. Much of the information is also contained in her general leather tanning book, but there is also a lot of information specific to fish skin and various species of fish, though they seem largely to be species from her part of the world, Sweden.
Blue Mountain Buckskin, Jim Riggs:
My teacher and teacher of my teacher Jim Riggs. Jim was largely responsible for disseminating braintanning knowledge, having learned from his teacher Buckskin Slim Scheafer, who's book is below. This is the best all around reference on dry scrape braintanning. Fun, thorough and insightful. #1 recommendation for a book on dry scrape braintanning.
Jim died last year. He was friend and mentor many and had a profound and enduring effect on the primitive skills movement. Many people's live took radically different directions because of either contact with Jim, or with others infected with his knowledge and philosophy. My buckskin book contains much of Jim and would not exist without him. Blue Mountain Buckskin is an enduring slice of Jim in the best way.
Tribute page for Jim Riggs: https://www.facebook.com/pg/jimriggsmemories/community/
The Tanning Spirit video, Melvin Beatty, click here to watch:
Mel is one of the best tanners I know to this day and has always produced the best quality wetscrape buckskin. His tips helped me get to producing better wetscrape buckskin. You can watch his video on the subject on youtube now.
Also visit mel at the following. He posts tips and experience on braintanning at his facebook page.
And Facebook as BraintanBuckskin
The Indian Art of Tanning Buckskin
"Buckskin Slim" Schaefer, 1973
Jim Rigg's teacher Slim wrote this book at Jim's urging. It was published the same year as Larry Belitz' book, Brain Tanning the Sioux Way, those being the first two books specific to braintanning that I know of. This book is out of print, but they show up on ebay and elsewhere now and again at not unreasonable prices.
Brain Tanning the Sioux Way, Larry Belitz:
This is a small book and lacking somewhat in detail. There is enough information to learn the process, but it will be more trial and error than when using a more in depth book. I think a lot of braintanners in the 70's and early 80's probably learned at least partly from this book.
Making the Attikamek Snowshoe, Henri Vaillancourt:
Available on the Author's website, this book is fantastic. It is exactly what it should be, a detailed documentation of a traditional art, with as much important detail as possible, recorded in quality images and insightful text. Henri is part anthropologist and part craftsman, which is how it should be, but almost never is. The section on hide working outlines interesting traditional methods common to moose country for tanning skins and producing rawhide, both very important skills in that part of the world.
Home Tanning and Leather Making Guide, A.B. Farnham:
This guide has some useful information, but leaves something to be desired as a stand alone guide to tanning. It is still one of the better references for vegetable tanning and well worth taking advantage of, all the more so, because it is out of copyright and can be download from tanning book collection
Home manufacture of Furs and Skins, A.B. Farnham, no date:
A useful book when it comes to handling and dressing furs. Available as a free download from tanning book collection
Home Tanning of Leather and Small Fur Skins, USDA, 1923:
Of limited use due to lack of detail, but worth reading. Download from tanning book collection.
Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills, John and Gerry McPherson, 1993:
This book contains John McPherson's small book on braintanning by the dry scrape method. It is a competent and useful guide to that subject, and also contains lots of other great stuff on primitive living skills of all kinds. A good and useful book worth the price of admission from some old friends back in the day.
Aboriginal Skin Dressing in Western North America, Arden Ross King, 1938:
This book is unobtanium, and likely only available in a few large university libraries.
The art of leather manufacture, Alexander Watt, 1885:
One of the better old books on tanning, although the only digital version I could find is the later 1906 version. Available to download from the tanning book collection. Much of the better part may be derived from the De LA LANDE translation below, which is more recommended.
The Art of Tanning and of Currying Leather... Collected From the French of monsieure De La Lande and others, 1773:
or download in my tanning book collection here
Maybe the best all around old resource I've found, introduced to me by friend and tanning colleague Jason Leininger. Unusually well written and exhaustive for that time period. Anyone who reads french should go to the original text, as no doubt things are changed, left out, or lost in translation.
Dictionary of Leather-Working Tools, Circa 1700-1950 R.A. Salaman,1986:
Another book primarily for the enthusiast, tool maker and researcher. A jillion variations on leather working tools as well as some tools of the tanner and currier. Helpful in identifying old leather working and tanning tools.
Secrets of Eskimo Skin Sewing, Edna Wilder, 1976:
Traditional patterns and techniques from the source.
Glue, Gelatin, Isinglass, Cements and Pastes, Dawidowsky & Brannt, 1905:
This is the book I learned most of what I know about glue making from. It is a technical manual for manufacturers from the intersection of tradition and science at a time when hide glue was still king. Dowload free from Glue Books Collection
The American Indian Parfleche a Tradition of Abstract Painting, Gaylord Torrence, 1994:
An art book, packed full of art-speak. There is some interesting history, and the small amount of functional detail it does contain helped me figure the process out eventually. The photos are excellent. This is a beautiful and unique practical art form that originally combined a functionality tailor fit to a singular lifestyle with expressive art. Very neat book.
Axe Buying Checklist Series, #1 Damage and Wear
This is a series on common problems found with axes from craftsmanship to use and abuse. There are many points, like a checklist of things to look at when picking up an axe or axe head which few people are savvy enough to know to look for all of. After this series, you'll have that mental checklist.
The four video segments are on:
Wear and Damage,
Symmetry,
Handles
Options and Axe Hunting
Most used axes are either worn or abused in some way. Fortunately, they are often perfectly serviceable anyway, usually after a little work. New axes can have various issues and seemingly perfect axes seem to be the exception.
This links to the video playlist. One video will come out every day for the next few days.
Photographs from 2017
I started putting together a blog post on some of my favorite pictures from 2017, but it was looking more like 4 blog posts, so I'm just going to send you to my Flickr page, where I put all the photos I really like already anyway. https://www.flickr.com/photos/52106235@N07/
Leek, Apple and Lettuce Seeds, Plus Grape Cuttings and Awls in Store Finally
I finally got the seeds into the store, ready to ship. I've got Bulgarian Giant, Bronze Beauty Lettuce, and Apple Seeds. Also, some seedless table grape cuttings and Buckskin sewing awls. Http://www.skillcult.com/store
2017 Video Retrospective With Stiff Dead Cat
A second video retrospective of 2017, with music from my friends in Stiff Dead Cat. Homestead stuff, chickens, projects, nature, mushrooms and some really cool time lapse landscapes.
A Look Back at 2017, Video Retrospective
Some video snippets and projects from 2017. I have high hopes for 2018.
Tasting 9 Late Winter Apples, The Good, The Great and The Mushy
Anyone that has followed my apple content for a while knows I'm obsessed with late hanging apples. In this video I'm tasting 9 late winter apples, mostly off the tree and a few out of storage. Results below.
Some favorites, roughly in order.
1. Katherine. Named for early 20th century apple breeder Albert Etter's wife, this is an exceptional apple. It hangs very late and seems to be at it's best sometime in December. This late specimen has a rich multi-dimensional flavor. It was popular at new year dinner last night, one person described it as like wine. The flavor is not very describable, but it's deep and sophisticated. Earlier, it is often less complex and just pleasantly flavored. It has an unbeatable texture when it's at it's best, with a very light crisp flesh and plenty of juice. This would be in my top 10 apples as grown here. I have never stored it to speak of.
2. Whitwick Pippin: This beats out Katherine for intensity and any one person might easily prefer it to that apple. It is more intensely flavored, complex, quite sweet but also acidic. The texture at this time of year is better and I suspect it will prove to be a later hanger in the long run. I only scored Katherine higher because I am more compelled to eat it for whatever reasons and I would never argue with that.
3. Gold Rush: Even out of storage, this scores 3rd, although Lady Williams would likely go in this spot if it were ripe. These have held good texture and although they have picked up or developed some off flavors in the fridge, they are quite good, with a forward acidity, plenty of sugar and plenty going on in the flavor department. Thumbs up for a storage apple.
4: Pomo Sanel: Some specimens at this apple at this time will beat some specimens of Gold Rush, but today, gold rush won by a small margin. This is a very rare apple discovered locally. It bears some resemblance and eating characteristics to gold rush and it seems quite possible that it is from the same grimes' golden/golden delicious line that Gold rush is part of. Pomo Sanel is more rubbery in texture and will hold it's shape very well when cooked. I threw a slice in my coconut milk shrimp soup base the other day and let it boil for a while and it held up very well. I think you could probably get away with canning it for apple pie filling.
5. Hauer Pippin: I've not been able to get super excited about this apple, but it has some good characteristics. It is a rare apple outside of Northern and Central California. It was originally discovered in Central California and is rare outside of this state, though I hear it was grown commercially at one time. It is a very beautiful apple and hangs well to the tree through the first half of winter. The flavor is somewhat odd to me, but this specimen makes me think I should keep a branch of it.
Lady Williams would be higher on this list if it were ripe now, but it is a couple weeks too early. It may even deserve to be before Hauer Pippin, even now.
More apples could be on this list, those are just the ones I had to taste on this new years day. Here is a previous video on some of the same apples and others.
Axe Cordwood Challenge 2018 is On, Rules and Stuff
The Axe Cordwood Challenge for 2018 Kicks off today, Jan 1st 2018, through Sept. 1st 2018. Here is the official video. Also, below is the "must watch" playlist of videos for the cordwood challenge, which I hope to add to in the coming months. Stay safe and have fun.
