TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura and I sprayed two tanks beginning at 5 AM. We sprayed Cueva (copper), Regalia, Double-Nickel and assorted herbs teas including Comfrey, Dandelion, Horsetail, Nettles, Willow and more. The objective is to strengthen the apple trees to fend off fire blight as well as other pests and disease. Cammy continued to transplant vegetable plants into the big garden, and later she and I planted the potatoes up at the nursery. We have taken most of the remaining 2023 apples from the root cellar and added them to the compost piles. In the process we have begun to discover this year’s best keepers. Roxbury Russet of course still look very good, but some others do as well. In the next few days we’ll go through all the remaining bags in the root cellar and see which apples are still great. So far it looks as though there will be some excellent apples in amongst the rotten ones.

Here is Bunk planting a Roxbury Russet in its place of origin, Roxbury, MA with a group of local youth. Roxbury Russet, possibly the oldest named apple in the US, is one of the best of all keepers traditionally grown in Maine. Outstanding for cooking - Bunk considers it his favorite winter sauce apple.