Redlove Era Apple. 9.19.2020

Today I harvested the first Redlove Era apple, and also a Redlove Calypso and a bunch of others.  This was the first apple from Era, which is in it's second summer now.  The Redlove Calypso has been in the ground less than a year.  It had three apples, and I ate one a month ago.

I forgot to upload a photo of the uncut apples.  I will do so if I can locate it.

For comparison, here are Airlie Red Flesh, Redlove Calypso, Liberty, and Redlove Era.  Liberty is a medium size apple, Airlie Red Flesh is small-ish.  The Calypso and Era apples were small, silver dollar size apples.

Era is much deeper red.  The skin is also more red, compared to Calypso.  Airlie usually has more red or pink compared to this apple.

The Airlie and Liberty were both sweet, apple-flavored apples with almost no sourness.  Calypso was very tart, and not much else.  Redlove Era was really delightful , a fruit or berry flavored apple, tart and sweet, sort of like cranapple.  

Fruit trees usually need a few years for their fruits to reach full size and flavor.  

it's nice to get this taste.  So far, my favorite is Redlove Era.

Slices from Redlove Era apple.  Very tasty.  The photo doesn't quite catch the true red color - a dark scarlet.

Corn (Maize). From Seikei Zusetsu, Japan, 1804

 Seikei Zusetsu is a book containing agricultural woodcuts from early 1804 and created in Japan in 1793 by unknown artists in Japan.  This image is from wikimedia commons.  I edited this image slightly, cropping for a narrower page border to emphasize the image better.  I find these images very compelling, combining some things I love to look at - Japanese art, 19th century book engravings (technically these were end of 18th century), botanical art, and history of agriculture and horticulture.  This is an image of corn, a crop originally developed in Mesoamerica (I guess millennia before Maya, let alone Aztec empires),  and spread around the rest of the world as part of the post-Columbian exchange.   I chose this image because now is corn harvesting time.

Bee forage, or not. 9.18.2020

 The wildfire smoke level is down to about 100, from well above 500 two days ago.  That's still not "clean" but not "hazardous to life" that it was.

I checked on the bees, through the window in their beehive.  I THINK they are OK.  Not much activity, today was cook and rainy so I think they wouldn't be going out anyway.  The yellow jacket traps have a few dozen yellow jackets - bad news, really. That means there are still lots of them out there.

Since it's cool and there are no bees out there, it may not matter now to have nectar and pollen plants.  But there might be sunny days now and then.

This is the patch of wildflowers that I planted in July, I think.  It was after the irises that were in this spot finished blooming, and I moved them elsewhere.  They are blooming nicely now.  I was surprised that they did this well, planting the seeds so late and watering only a few times when first planted, and a few times this month.  I don't know the source of the wildflower mix.  There are lots of bachelor's buttons, some coreopsis, cosmos, and a few zinnias.  That is most of it.  Deer have not eaten any of it.

These are the buckwheat that I planted in the former potato patch, roughly two weeks ago.  I think they benefited from the smoke emergency, because the soil did not dry out so fast.  I don't know if these will just be a ground cover / "green manure" cover crop, or if they will bloom before the first frost.

These are the other buckwheat, planted in mid summer.  They are blooming very well.  It's not a big enough patch to sustain a hive, but it's not nothing.  This is a learning process for me.

Phacelia is not blooming yet.  I think it might be close.

Squash Harvest. 9.18.2020

 I decided to harvest all of the squashes today.  The stems were dry and woody, so that tells me it's time.   This was a nice harvest, and some are new types that I never grew before. I regret a little bit not isolating the blossoms and hand pollinating each with its own variety, but at the time that wasn't an option.  I also did not realize how much I wanted to save seeds this year.

There are some new types - the Red Kuri Japanese squash produced quite a number of small, acorn-squash or larger size squashes.  The Japanese Kobucha squash, on the other hand, made only one.   The Pink Banana Squash made two very large and several small to large squashes, but one large one was vole-chewed and developed rot as a result.  No waste - that went to chickens who will eat the squash and its seeds.  That's OK, I got mine too.  Then my other favorite is the Galeux d'Eysines pumpkin (Apparently "Galeux" means scruffy or scabious) - beautiful pumpkin and makes really good pies.  So does Pink Banana Squash, which is special because my great aunt Emma gave me seeds to this one 55 years ago, I grew them and my mom used them to make pies.  These seeds were from Baker Creek heirloom seeds.  

 There are also some summer squashes, which will be used in a couple of weeks, and the two big stripy  / green  ones are heirloom Italian Zucchinis that I am saving for seeds.  I hope the progeny are not a tasteless mix, so next Spring I'll grow one from the old packet as well.  The big white one is "Illinois Squash" which I've never eaten and which I don't know what it will be like.

Those yellow summer squash are incredible good prepared as follows.  Slice into French Fry shape slices.  Don't try to skin them first, the skin is tender and cooks even more tender.  Dust the slices with season salt, pepper, garlic powder, maybe some pepper flakes.  Drizzle with vegetable or olive oil, stir, then air fry 400 F, 8 minutes, toss, air fry for another 8 minutes.  The best breakfast or snack you can have. 

 You can also do that with Zucchinis.

Sweetcorn Harvest and Freezing. 9.18.2020

 Sweetcorn has been coming "on line" for the past week.  There were a few ears from the first planted batch, the second planted batch basically didn't grow or the plants got eaten by something.  So these are the third and fourth batches, which were planted early / mid June I think, and I wondered if that was too late. As it turned out, they are producing a lot of big tasty perfect ears.

This also answered a couple of questions I had.  One, there wasn't enough room to plant four-row blocs, which was recommended for best pollination.  Instead, I planted three-row blocs.  Those have done fine pollination-wise.  Maybe a few small ears, but not a problem.  I also wondered if they were planted too late.  This makes for a fall crop, but did much better than the earliest ones.  Which where OK and better than nothing when I got some sweet corn from those.  

There were a lot of tomatoes to pick at the same time as the sweetcorn.

I think these were "Ambrosia" but they might be "Bodaceous".  I like the "SE" type corn.  The supersweets are too sweet and not enough corn flavor.  The SE type ripens for me, is sweet but not sugary sweet, and has a good flavor, tender but not mushy kernels.

I blanch for three minutes in boiling water, transfer to ice water, and when cool, slice off "planks" of corn.  They don't make planks if sliced when hot, which is interesting.  I like those.  This is different from fresh, but such good flavor and so welcome in midwinter, that I grew extra this year just to freeze.  The last bloc is also almost ready to harvest.