Today in the orchard
We were back in the orchards picking today - Somerset of Maine, Red St. Lawrence and Hung Hai Tung. Somerset of Maine is a large, rusty red, pie apple that originated in Somerset County. The fruit is beautiful.. SOM is sometimes confused with the apple, Thompson, also from Somerset County. (You can read more about that saga in Chapter 9 of Apples and the Art of Detection).
Red St. Lawrence is a red sport of the famous, historic, Canadian all-purpose cultivar that was discovered in Newburgh, ME. The contrast of the bright red stripes and the dull red ground color is more than amazing. Both the sport and the original St. Lawrence are cooking apples of outstanding quality.
Lastly, Hung Hai Tung is a selection of Malus asiatica discovered in the 1920’s by fruit explorer P.H. Dorsett in Jilin province, China at the Buddhist temple of Fa Hua Ssu. Although introduced as an exceptionally beautiful, white-flowering ornamental, the small, tart, red, juicy, slightly bitter fruit may also have potential for cider.
Later in the afternoon friends came to visit, and we put them to work preparing to cover-crop this year’s garlic bed. Weeding is always a excellent way to put friends to work ,and have lots of time to chat and catch up in the process. And the bed looks great.