Apple and Pear Scab

I'm almost to a point where I think that our nice weather is going to stick around for a while. The Old Farmer's Almanac winter forecast for our area has been spot-on, and their long range outlook is equally favorable. My peas are in the ground, and although I haven't seen any sprouts yet, it's still a little bit early for that.

UC IPM Illustration of the scab life cycle.

So now, in addition to getting my seeds organized and started, I need to be mindful of the fruit trees and their needs. The bees are out and about already, and they're absolutely loving our plum tree which is now in full bloom. I don't recall it ever being so fragrant in February before!

One of the problems we have here is scab on our apple and pear trees. It's common everywhere, but our cool, wet springs are absolutely perfect growing conditions for the fungi that cause these ailments. Apple scab is an infection caused by a fungus called Venturia inequalis, whereas the Pear scab is an infection caused by a close relative, V. pirina. The infections, even though they appear symptomatically similar and are also managed in essentially the same ways, are different and cannot spread interchangeably between the two types of trees.

The fungi overwinter on the ground in the leaf and fruit debris from the trees until the following spring rains come and spread the spores. If the temperatures are right (between 55 and 75 degrees F) the spores will germinate quickly in the spring. Cleaning up and removing the fallen leaves and fruit is one of the most important things you can do to manage scab in existing orchards, and in many cases can significantly reduce the severity of an infection, year over year. If you are putting in new trees, planting resistant varieties will also help.

We have a couple of trees this year where there are some dead leaves and fruit are still stubbornly stuck to the branches on which they grew. I'm going to need to figure out a way to knock those down so I can get rid of them before the new leaves start to open. Once an infection takes hold, you cannot get rid of it- you can only do damage control for the rest of the season. It can cause a significant loss of fruit if the infection is severe, so catching it early and being vigilant in your management program is key.

I'm also researching spray options this year, which I don't normally do. Historically, warm and wet conditions here in the Spring means we're going to have all sorts of fungal issues to contend with, so I'm definitely interested in preventing whatever I possibly can.There are a lot of choices out there, from hard-hitting chemical concoctions, to more gentle "home remedies" that may or may not work. Keep an eye out for that, in the next couple of weeks.

What about you? Have you had any experience with apple or pear scab?

Thar She Blows...

If you stopped by the Facebook page or over on Instagram last week, you might have noticed I had a bit of a debacle with the Cider Experiment. I was wrapping up some work in my office when all of a sudden I heard a loud noise, somewhere between a pop and a bang, that seemed to come from our storage room.

Lucky!

When I opened the door, the pleasant yeasty apple smell of hard cider hung in the air. There was a tiny puddle seeping out from one of the cases that we had stored on the floor, and was creeping its way to the floor drain. By some stroke of luck, it happened to be the one case that we'd closed the cardboard lid on. Cautiously, I opened the box, to find that one of the bottles of cider had, in fact, over pressurized and exploded. I chuckled to myself about how lucky I was that it was a self contained mess, snapped a quick picture, and started cleaning up.

I picked up a couple of the intact bottles, and brought them out to our bar area. I knew I needed to get them into colder storage, so I rinsed and dried the bottles and put them in the fridge. When I went back to get more, I thought it was silly to make a bunch of trips back and forth, so I slid the case out of the puddle and picked it up. This, friends, is where everything went wrong.

Aftermath

The soggy cardboard bottom gave out. I could feel it start to happen, but the only thing I could do was squeeze my eyes shut and try to put the box back down. That didn't work. Six more highly pressurized glass bottles hit the concrete floor at my feet. They, too, exploded. This time, however, there was no cardboard to contain anything. Shards of glass flew out in every direction, even bouncing off the wall behind me, some 15 feet away. My shins took a direct hit: pieces of glass went through my pants and actually cut me. Cider went everywhere.

After some much grumbling and cleaning up, all is well. I got the rest of the bottles cleaned off and packed away in the fridge. I also learned the valuable lesson that all of the warnings you see about exploding ferments are quite real. Next year, all of our cider will be packaged in well ventilated boxes with lids while they rest before being refrigerated.

On the plus side, no one was seriously hurt, and that batch of cider is really quite good. Explosions and mess notwithstanding, I'm pleased with how it turned out and am looking forward to making more next year.

Have you ever had a ferment get out of control like this? I've heard from a few folks already who have had similar experiences. What about you?

Friday Photos

Good morning and Happy Friday! I just found out that there's a news crew coming to film at the farm this morning, so I need to hurry over to get things tidied up before they get there. The fund-raising goal wasn't met, but there's been some extra publicity in the local media lately, so perhaps that will help save the farm. Cross your fingers!

Apples, apples everywhere...

Tiny rabbit in the weeds

Reflections of a car show

First egg from one of the new girls! (The darker of the two)

One of my friends at the farm

Zucchini: Pickles in Progress

What did your week look like?

Ramping Up, Winding Down

The past few mornings have been cool and foggy, a sure sign that the seasons are getting ready to start changing. The afternoons, however, are still quite warm- and the produce coming in from the garden definitely reflects that.

I already have the first round of apples cooking in the crock pot, and a test growler of hard cider is bubbling away on the counter. I'm out under our apple trees several times a day with my bucket, gathering up the good ones to process, and the less desirable ones go to the animals. A friend has a cider press he's offered to lend us the use of; I'm looking forward to making arrangements to have a cider-making party here, very soon. We were going to do that last year, but most of the apples fell while we were out of town, unfortunately.


The garden continues in high gear: yesterday, in addition to my regular squash pickup, there were cucumbers, purple greenbeans, peas and kale all ready for the taking. Today, I need to harvest the seeds from the cilantro that bolted and let them dry. I haven't used coriander much as a seasoning, but I'm looking forward to trying it. So far, the seeds taste like a much milder version of the plant, so that's definitely something I can work with. Plus, I'll leave some seeds on the plant so I can have more next year.

The tomatoes are getting closer. They're almost to the top of the enclosure, so once they get that tall, I'm going to have to clip their main stems back, in order to force them to focus on ripening the fruit, instead of getting any taller. I'll give it another week, maybe two. There are some good flowers almost all the way up to the ends!

Blackberries are also on the agenda. They're starting to ripen quickly now, so it's just a matter of time before we're bringing those in and making jam. Last year's batch never quite set up (I think the pectin I used was past it's prime) so we've been using it as a syrup/sauce- but it will be nice to have an actual jam this year. Come hell or high water, that stuff is going to gel!

The pears are getting really close, too. We don't have nearly as many as last year, so it's important that we bring in the ones that we do have, when they're at their prime. Both Alex and I love dried pears, so I think that most of them will be processed that way. (Mental note: must take apart the dehydrator today and fix the weird noise it's making.) I still have a couple jars of pears in vanilla syrup from last year, so I don't need to worry about making more of those this time around. They're really good, but we just don't eat a lot of desserts.

Our potato bins are finally starting to slow down. I noticed over the weekend that some of the vines are starting to die back, which means they'll be ready to dig soon, too. If I had to guess, it'll be another two weeks, at the most. I dug up some of the volunteer potatoes the other day, and I have to say it looks like a good year for them, in general. We got 12 tennis-ball sized red potatoes from one small-ish looking plant!

The beef are finishing up their stint over in the neighbor's pasture. They've got 3 weeks left before the kill truck comes, then another 3 weeks of hanging after that- and then we'll have our third in the freezer. I have no idea what a third of a whole steer will look like, so this will be interesting. We're estimating a couple hundred pounds of meat... that reminds me, I still need to look into getting an additional freezer for storage.

This is how it will be, for the next 4 to 6 weeks: for every one thing we check off our lists, another two will get added. We'll be busy working to put up food and finish the fair-weather chores, before settling in for the cooler seasons. It's an exciting time, and it never ceases to amaze me at how fast the last little bit of summer always flies by. I think that's why it drives me bonkers that the back-to-school stuff and the Fall decorations show up in stores in July... it's going to go so fast as it is, why rush it?

What's on your to-do list for the end of summer?

Catching Up

It's been pretty busy over here; first we went on vacation- we've been taking a trip out to Glacier National Park in Montana every year, since 2008. I can't get enough of the place... it's like going home every time we go there. We spend almost the entire time hiking; this year we logged just over 60 miles for the week. Whew!

     
When we got back, the garden (as expected) was in full swing. My mom housesits for us when we're away (THANKS MOM!!) and she did her best to keep up with everything. There was, however, a zucchini hiding from her:

                Feed Me, Seymour!

So, as soon as we got back, we had to hit the ground running. I picked, blanched, and froze three pounds of green beans, and have been cycling pounds of zucchini through the dehydrator. I also had to scramble to get the apples that were starting to fall, and canned up some pie filling and applesauce. Blackberries are off the charts as well, so many pints of jam were canned up during the week after work.

Now the pears are here. I picked a bunch the other day and I'm just waiting for them to ripen a little bit more before I can them. I'm thinking I'll put them in a medium syrup with vanilla... mmm.

Plums are also on the way- the tree is loaded and I'll be up to my ears in those in another couple of days. I've scavenged the few early ones and have them soaking in some vodka; I'll give them about a week, and then strain out the spent fruit. A shot of that, plus a little simple syrup in a glass of seltzer makes for a nice treat after all this hard work!

True to form, my tomatoes are just putzing along. I have 3 (would be 4 but I ate the first one) reddish ones on the vine, and oodles of green ones just taking their time. I'll be stopping by the farm stand down the road tomorrow, to see if they have any uglies boxed up and ready for sauce. I nabbed a flat from them last week ($18 for 10 pounds of organic heirloom beauties!) and had a batch of sauce in no time. I like using my crock pot for stuff like this; I can put it on in the morning before work and when I get home it's pretty much ready. Beats standing over the stove all day- it's still too warm here for that!

What's your favorite thing to put up for the winter?