It’s been a bumper year for apples.  Everybody says so.  And our two trees are no exception.  Our early crop of William’s Pride apples made vats of applesauce as well as several apple pies, and produced bags of apples to give to friends and neighbors.  We are still enjoying them for lunch and not just because of the one-a-day-keeps-the-doctor-away adage.

The William’s Pride apples are medium sized and turn deep red as they ripen.  While still on the tree, they are incredibly tempting and this year, with such a plethora nestled along the branches, we had numbers of people actually ask us if they could have one.  Among others, the painters at the church asked and the tent-raisers for our party asked. And who could blame them?  Those apples were in-your-face-beautiful and oh so plentiful.  The bonus is that they are crisp, juicy, and pleasantly tart.  And organic!

The Rajka Rezista apples of our second tree are just getting to harvest stage now.  They aren’t the deep red color of William’s Pride – more a blush of light red here and there against an over-all apple green.  They don’t call out to passers-by as loudly, but when people do notice them they express amazement.  The tree is absolutely loaded!

In fact, a few weeks ago it looked as though the weight of the apples was going topple the tree to the east, so Nyel drove a stake into the lawn and pulled the tree westward which helped.  Still, the main branch on the east side of the trunk is so heavy with fruit that we feared the branch might break off completely, so yesterday Nyel made a sort of crutch for support.

Truth to tell, we feel a bit guilty about all these apples – guilty because of the hardship to the trees and because we were remiss in our thinning duties during the summer.  I’ve read that apple trees in their natural state produce bumper crops in alternate years but if properly thinned each year, the orchardist can count on a more balanced amount of fruit at each harvest.  If that is correct, I imagine we’ll have fewer apples next year.  I don’t think I’ll be sorry.