Today in the orchard
You know that apple picking season is winding down when you’re out there picking the Black Oxfords. I did a test run picking two bushels of Black Oxfords up in the Finley Lane Orchard. They are beginning to drop. The stems are detaching easily. It’s time to pick them all. We’ll do that this weekend.
We sell or trade most of the Black Oxfords, but we always keep a few bushels for ourselves. We store them in the cooler as the root cellar cools down. In a few weeks we’ll shut off the cooler and move all the remaining apples into the root cellar where they’ll reside for the winter. After a couple of months in storage— about mid-January when they’re reaching their prime — we’ll begin to pull out the Black Oxfords and use them primarily in cooking.
Yes, apple picking season is winding down, and Black Oxford season is winding up.