Miner and his namesake and Helen, Miner, October 8, 2026

Rain early and clearing. The orchard has had lots of visitors this season. Two are visiting now. Mac and Helen are longtime friends, and it’s great to have them here. Today Mac and I cleaned up drops in the orchard, toured Finley and did some tasting. Frostbite (447) is ready to pick and tasting its usual fantastic. Scout (a seedling of Frostbite) is closing in on perfection and starting to taste really good too.

Mac’s name is actually not Mac. Although all his friends call him Mac, his name is Miner. Miner sounds like Minor which is the opposite of Major. One of our seedlings is a child of the well-known English bittersweet, Major. So why not call the seedling Miner? Right next to our Miner tree is a second seedling. We call that one Helen.

Both Miner and Helen fruited for the first time this year. We had 4 Helen apples. It’s a seedling of Sweet Alford and might make a good cooking apple. I was hoping to save the Helen to give to Helen but alas, they were gone by a few weeks ago. We did, however, still have our one Miner apple and topped off a fun evening with a “Miner tasting.” Despite being a momentous occasion, the sad fruit was admittedly a couple of weeks beyond its prime. Nonetheless, with great ceremony, we sliced it up. It was not exactly a hit. (“Minor League?”) It wasn’t totally booed off stage but, hey, it was the first apple, and no one ever said it was going to be a dessert fruit. When we get a few more… we’ll make cider!