Pippins

The Cox’s Orange Pippin apples are ready.  We didn’t get but just a few, as the tree can be fiddly in its fruit-bearing, and I had pruned it heavily the winter before for shape, not fruit production.

Nonetheless, these are spectacular apples.  The flavor is purported to be one of the best in the world.  The first time I tried one, I was hooked.  And since they aren’t available unless you grow them yourself, we planted in a tree by the duck house.

And the color – a pumpkin orange undertone with mottling of red, yellow and pale green, and bits of russetting.  Beautiful, and not like any apple in the grocery store.  If any apple makes a case for heirloom apple trees in the home garden, it is this gem of a fruit.

George and I cut back much of the horseradish (it will die back to the ground at the first frost, anyway).  Horseradish, rhubarb, comfrey, artichoke all put out large amounts of foliage which they shed come cold weather.  These large leaves make great mulch.  Since this horseradish was overgrowing the path -and I kept snagging my crutch on it every single time I walked by – a portion of it had to go.

While I mulched a Juneberry with the horseradish leaves, George got some prime snuggle time with his favorite chicken, Nudge.  Nudge loves nothing better than a good snuggle with a gentle child.  If George doesn’t crouch down for her, she will attempt to flap up into his arms in order to be held.

The quince are getting closer and closer to being ripe.  Still green, but beginning to turn yellow.  I am dreaming of membrillo already.