Apple Harvest So Far. 9.25.2020

 I picked some of the early fall ripening apples.  This year the Liberty apples are some of the first.  I think my approach of grating multiple varieties to each tree had some merit.  Not only does that help with pollination, but there are different varieties in the same space, and they ripen at different times, spreading out the harvest.  I label the Liberty apples for Ning.  They are his favorite.  I like them too.

This year a King David apple graft, a heritage cultivar first grown in Arkansas, had its first apples.  It's not very vigorous, and needed about 4 or 5 years.  They turned out to be quite tasty, good texture, nice in every way.  Small, which is fine.  I don't care for giant size apples.

The King David apples.

Some of the Liberty apples.

This year I'm storing them in a shed, where they should be cooler than when I stored them in the garage.  I'm also putting them on newspaper and trying to avoid stacking them.

 

I found some King David apples on the USDA pomological watercolor website.  As with other images, I edited a little for size and clarity.

This is the description for King David on orange pippin website  "one of the lesser-known apples that were promoted by the famous Stark Brothers nursery at the end of the 19th century... discovered as a chance seedling...but most authorities agree that Jonathan is one of the parents, and it has the aromatic qualities associated with that variety.  The other parent is believed to be Winesap or Arkansas Black, and visually it has a resemblance to the latter."  I usually like any apple with Jonathan genes.  They have a flavor that stands out very nicely.

These are really good.  Maybe I will graft a scion from this graft, onto some super dwarfing scion for my miniature fruit tree mini orchard.

Dahlias. 9.25.2020

 These dahlias have been blooming and blooming since mid summer.  I just planted them in the vegetable garden where I found space.  Next year they deserve a better location and tying up.  The question now is, do I leave the tubers in the ground or dig them up and store them in the garage for the winter.

The Last Batches of Sauce Tomatoes And Better Boys. 25 Sept 2020.

 Yesterday I harvested the rest of the Ranger sauce tomatoes and the Better Boy slicing tomatoes.  I left the Bodaceous and cherry tomatoes on the plant for today.  It's raining, so there is done splitting.

Even though some catalogs claim that determinates, like these sauce tomatoes, don't need staking, the plants really did much better in cage support structures.  Back burner project for this winter, make some better cages.  Two plants fell over and were touching the ground.  Those plants were much more worse for the wear, with badly damaged tomatoes and rotting leaves.  Even so, with the plants looking as bad as they did, the crop was very nice.  I have enough for some more cooking up into whatever I want for another week or so.  The round ones with the sauce tomatoes are Early Girl Bush.  Those were good for slicing too.

There are also enough Better Boy for a couple of weeks if they keep that long.

I also picked Jalapenos.  The plants remain healthy looking and vigorous.  I should let a couple of them ripen and save the seeds.  This was a good variety and I forget which one it is.  

With this year being one bad news after another, I did not know if these crops would make it to the result.  Growing them is more about the doing than the getting.  Yet here they are, lots of beautiful and delicious, nutritious garden grown vegetables.   It's very good for the soul.

Fig Watercolors from USDA Pomological Collection. 9.24.2020

 These are from the USDA Pomological watercolor website.  

They have this introductory statement

"USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection is one of the most unique collections in the Rare and Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library (NAL). As a historic botanical resource, it documents new fruit and nut varieties, and specimens introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection spans the years 1886 to 1942. The majority of the paintings were created between 1894 and 1916. The plant specimens represented by these artworks originated in 29 countries and 51 states and territories in the U.S. There are 7,497 watercolor paintings, 87 line drawings, and 79 wax models created by approximately 21 artists. Lithographs of the watercolor paintings were created to illustrate USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other publications distributed to growers and gardeners across America. "

They have the following attribution requirement. 

 "Use of the images in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection is not restricted, but a statement of attribution is required. Please use the following attribution statement: "U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705" 

The "Royal Black" fig original had the following notation:

"Mr. Tassa, living at 631 Maryland Ave., S.W. has brown, white, and black fig varieties said to have been brought from Italy in about 1894 by his brother who lived near Pennsylvania Ave. and 2nd Street, N.W. The black fig resembles this drawing. A son of this brother who imported the figs lives at 1365 Meridian Place, N.W., and has two fig trees. of the "black" variety growing on the premises of a house owned by him at 1368(?) Meridian Place (opposite side of street, next to alley). H.R. Fulton, August, 1942"

I did some minor editing.  My eyes need a little sharpening and color enhancement, and I removed some extra border so the images would be larger.  The watermark is automatic.

Edit:  I made some changes to this post for clarity, and improved the photo uploads.  9.25.2020

Vintage German Fig Illustration from Vintage Printable. 9.24.2020

 Vintage Printable provides public domain illustrations for download.  I doctored this one a little, croppin extraneous border, and modifying the color for clarity.