Today in the orchard
Black Oxfords, fresh from the root cellar, June 18, 2025
I’d been curious about how the Black Oxfords were doing in the root cellar, so today I went through the last bushel and picked out enough to make a batch of sauce. The fruit looked great, and the sauce was excellent. One of Black Oxford’s various synonyms was “4th of July Apple.” As we use up the last of the apples, we’ll be sure to hold back enough Black Oxfords to see if it’s worthy of the moniker. (Only sixteen days to go.) Phooey on those who bad-mouthed “BOX” over the years. It is a great apple.
Today we mulched the potatoes. They are all up now. We plant them later than many of our friends do but still get good results. We don’t “hill them” as is often recommended; instead we mulch them heavily with old hay. The mulch keeps the weeds down, keeps the ground moist and prevents the potatoes from turning that weird bizarre green color.
