An apple a day

About 12 years ago I was telling my son Josh that I was going to plant some apple trees. Josh looked at me, smiled and then laughed. “Dad. You’re 60 years old. Are you sure that starting an apple orchard is something you’re want to do?” Today his daughters, Mari, age 5, and Eleri, 3, are eating Grandpa’s apple sauce and they love it.

I learned some lessons about rabbits. They girdled three of my young trees, dooming them to death. I declared war on the Easter Bunny. No one ever told my Yellow Transparent tree it was dead. Introduced from Russia it’s one of the earliest apples to ripen, mid-July. It grew back with a large trunk that branched off with three more main trunks. It’s like having four trees today and last year produced several bushels of great cooking apples I use in pie and sauce because they are too soft to eat. Deer numbers increased when my neighbor who hunted them moved. Deer love apples. Now, besides wrapping my trees to protect them from bunnies I had to put a fence to keep the deer out.

I thought I had predators covered. Wrong! Deep snow made it tough for mice to survive and they were able to dig tunnels and girdle 3 young trees. I have learned from my mistakes and from working with my county ag agents whose job is to help gardeners and fruit growers like me with problems. Bugs and diseases like apple trees!

One type of apple tree I really wanted to grow was red fleshed apples. Not many people know they exist but they’re a fun apple, most often green on the outside and have red flesh on the inside. They are high in antioxidants, very juicy and some taste like cotton candy! One of my favorites is called Hidden Rose. Developed in Oregon it’s a jewel. The other one is the Pink Delight or Pink Pearl. Developed in California in 1940, it’s an amazing apple.

Another poor choice I made was to try to get two of our favorite tasting apples to grow here. My wife loves Pink Lady’s. I had little success growing them until this year. Pink Lady is loaded this year. My favorite, Braeburn, just didn’t grow much in two years and then the mice took it out last year. I need to watch the correct growing zones closer.

I’m doing great with my Cortland, Gravenstein, Honey Crisp, Snow Sweet and Wolf River, a Wisconsin apple that grows giant sized fruit that makes amazing apple butter. I’ve also added more young red fleshed apples and the Hudson Golden Gem this year, one of the best tasting apples around since it was first grown in the 1800’s. It’s no wonder granddaughters Mari and Eleri want me to stay forever!

Jim Bennett is an outdoorsman who lives and worked in the St. Croix Valley and can be reached at [email protected] for comments.

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