Today we picked September Ruby and the Cambridge Gage. September Ruby is a super-hardy, small-medium sized, red apple with an oval-conic, ”Red Delicious" shape. (Don’t hold it against it.) It’s a good dessert fruit, one of Skylar’s favorites. It has a melon flavor, a crunchy texture and keeps about a month in the cooler. I received the scionwood about 25 years ago from Dwight Bradley who was living in Alaska at the time. It originated in Manitoba. Dwight also sent me scionwood for Yellow Jay.

We also picked our first decent crop (still only a bag-full) of Cambridge Gage (aka Cambridge Green Gage), a small, roundish, greenish, European-type plum. (Prunus domestica). It is totally unlike the large, red, juicy, hybrid-types. There are many “Gage” cultivars, the most famous being the original “Green Gage” aka Reine Claude. There is no record of their true origin although we’re fairly sure that it was somewhere in eastern Europe before 1600. All the Gages are coveted for there superior fresh eating.

In the afternoon I took a bushel of very nice Somerset of Maine, a box of Centennial Crabs and the last of our first quality Trailman to one of the local farmstands where I hope they’ll make people happy who happen to stop in to see what’s new.