Today in the orchard
(Report by Skylar.) When ‘late summer’ actually begins I do not know, but I think maybe it’s here. The Monarda are now past; the Goldenrod are fading too. From afar the Finley Lane Orchard is once again mostly draped in green. Chlorophyll dominates. The fruit is flowing, the cooler is getting fuller. To me, the apples are already abundant, but I’m told it’s only the beginning.
Today I spent some time cataloging and setting aside good-looking apples for display at the Common Ground Country Fair. At the same time, I collected duplicates for the Super Chilly Farm collection. Tucked away in the root cellar are apple boxes labeled from A to Z that will eventually be full of apples of every SCF cultivar that fruits this year. They are used to compare other apples to as an identification aid, for photographing, and for other documentation purposes. They in essence act as models for their entire cultivar: a lot of weight rests on their shoulders.
I also harvested Peach of Montreal—an apple, not a peach— and Wealthy. I picked a few Captain Zero before realizing that it was a different cultivar grafted to the same tree as Wealthy. In my defense, they do look particularly similar. I paused, then continued on, now exceptionally careful that the only apples I was picking were, in fact, from the Wealthy branches of the tree.