What are you all doing to prepare for winter?

[Denim Deb]

Praise God they caught it. I've heard of other people who go in for something else and end up getting heart surgery.

 

[tortoise]

We're just starting to think winter, and I don' wanna! :cry We need to fill up the basement with wood. Still canning garden veggies, then apples are next. I need to figure out a water rabbit solution for winter ($20 for each heated water bottle is a BIT much!!). Last thing when it freezes is we move sheep and goats into winter barn pens and pasture. We need to figure out how to keep our big bully goat and adult ram separate from the others.

 

[Beekissed]

Foraged for apples this weekend up in the mountains, just old trees growing out in the woods....hard work out in the brush, so lacerations were sustained, but we got a few to start with. Will glean apples from my sister's two trees this coming week as well. Dusting off the copper kettle this week and will have an old fashioned "working" to get apples canned and firewood in the sheds.

 

[Denim Deb]

They look good. I always laugh at the people who turn their noses up at the 2nd and 3rds at the fruit stands when they're canning, freezing or dehydrating. They have to have the perfect fruit. My opinion? As long as it taste good, who cares?

 

[Beekissed]

Exactly. Those little bruises will make the sauce all the sweeter, IMO. They are all brown by the time you get them peeled, cored and sliced enough to do a canning anyway, so the bruises just blend.

These mountain apples cook down into a smooth, creamy consistency...not a bit like the grainy, bland stuff from the store. And the flavor...well..there's no comparison. Tangy, sweet, and with many nuances.

 

[Denim Deb]

You've now made me hungry. How did the trees get there in the first place?

 

[Beekissed]

You've now made me hungry. How did the trees get there in the first place?

I figure all these trees were planted when this area was first settled or by the families that lived there many years ago. Some of them show signs of having been grafted. No one around there can remember how or when they were all planted but they are simply everywhere...out in the woods, along old roads, near graveyards, etc. Johnny Appleseed, maybe?

The huge variety of the trees and the locations, the way they grow in relation to the other trees around would seem to indicate that most were planted with intent and didn't just happen from seeds being dropped by wild animals and birds, though some seem to be from that source...those way out in the woods seem to be of that nature.

 

[Denim Deb]

I wondered if they may have been planted by him. I've always been fascinated by his story.

 

[baymule]

I'm going to plant some apple trees this fall. I don't know how they will for, there is cedar trees like crazy here. I've read about cedar apple disease. (Shrug) nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree. Don't know until you try.

Sorted apples today and then loaded up and went across state line to my sister's house and stripped her four trees....not many and they were small, but they had good flavor and few bug signs, so I'm grateful to get them to add to our apple harvest for the year.

After apples comes the final push for wood, though we've been getting wood in all spring/summer long, we need to top off that supply once and for all.

Then, getting wood chips onto the garden....and on down the list.