I Have Seen the Future and There is Pie

Last year was a bad year for orchard crops.

A wet spring hammered the blossoms followed-on by a long dry spell.

The short version of the story is that Door County cherries were difficult to come by and my apple crop was virtually non-existent.

I have three mature apple trees. Whoever built here back in the 1800s had the foresight to plant both these trees and the lilacs around the original homestead.

One of those fruit trees is so old that I can barely link my hands about its vast trunk.

It is a gnarly tree with a couple of dead main limbs that are particularly spooky in the moonlight.

Bluebirds are nesting in a cavity in its trunk.

Yet it lives.

Those prehistoric lilacs have since formed a formidable hedgerow providing a source of nectar for the first of the hummingbirds to arrive in the spring and nesting cover for both them and several families of robins.

Bouquets of fresh lilacs and apple blossoms are a sure sign of the cold months being exorcised.

Back to the apple trees.

I haven't a clue what variety of apples these are but they are tart and excellent for cooking.

Apple sauce.

Apple butter.

And apple pie.

Plenty of blooms this spring-















Translates to plenty of apples this fall-