Today in the orchard
Second night in a row of frost. Two nights ago it was 26F. Last night, 32F. Today we weeded the asparagus patch for the last time this year. It took several hours, but it looks great. All those weeds—as well as the stalks—will go into the compost piles in the next few days. We’ve been amassing robust piles of weeds, stalks, canes, and vines, all of which will migrate into the heaps. It is compost season.
Later in the afternoon I harvested the Wickson seedling fruit. Not having a name yet, I’ve been calling it “Wicksonson.” (I know it’s a pretty lame name. We’ll come up with a better name now that we have fruit.) Wickson itself is one of the best-known introductions of Albert Etter (1872-1950). Wickson fruit is small, red-skinned, high in acid, high in sugar, good for dessert and recognized as one of the few single-varietal cider apples that receive almost universal acclaim. (One of the few others is Kingston Black.)
“Wicksonson” is considerably larger in size than its namesake parent. The texture is somewhat soft, the flavor is a bit bizarre and less acidic than Wickson. The sauce is lip-smacking tangy and a cheerful pink color. We had about 20 apples this year. Searching for the name...