Apples to Apples

Apples are falling off the tree. They are ready to be made into apple sauce, dried apples or apple pies. Today I made all three. I started with the dried apples.

This handy dandy tool peels, slices and cores. It makes this whole process a lot faster. I filled up the drier with apples first, then made a big kettle of apple sauce. I saved about eight of the best apples and used them for an apple pie.

I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of the pie but by that time I had really run out of steam! I was DONE with apples for the day!

Chicken Avocados

An Avocado tree grew as a volunteer where the chicken pen used to be. It's in an odd place but we didn't have the heart to pull it out. It was so healthy and growing so fast. Now it is producing buckets of Avocados. We don't know what variety they are. It's not Haas but they are good. Lucky us!

Kumquats

After 10 years at least, we finally got two Kumquats on the tree. Wow, that is underwhelming! We have threatened so many times that we were going to pull it out. Now...what do we do? Should it stay or should it go?

First Fruit to Ripen

The Apricots and Plumcots are the first to ripen in our orchard. We wait anxiously for them and try to leave them on the tree to ripen as long as the birds don't find them.  Once the birds decide they are ripe enough, we better pick! We do share some with the birds...they are our friends and we enjoy watching them and their little ones. We really like the Plumcots and hope our Pluot tree has fruit this year too. They seem to come off later, more like the Plums.

Holy Moly Guacamole

I checked out the avocado tree a while back and this is what it looks like. I think we will be having lots of avocados in the fall. This tree had a hard time getting started. It got nipped by frost several times over the years and the 2007 crop was completely lost. We are harvesting a few now that are ready to eat but this latest batch coming along will be awesome. Oh, I can taste it now... guacamole and chips, avocado halves with pico de gallo, avocado and grilled chicken salad or just avocado on whole grain bread. Now throw fresh tomatoes and hot peppers into the mix and the possibilities are endless!