I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but I grew up thinking that crab apples were totally inedible. This idea was cemented when my brother tricked me into eating one off a neighborhood tree, and the unpalatable bitterness & tartness was too much to handle (thanks Bri). Not so at the Koerber homestead!
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| cutting the apples in half speeds along the cooking process |
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| cooked at a low heat for half a day (ish) until the apples turn into mush |
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| the seeds, skin, and flesh are strained out using cheesecloth until just the juice remains |
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| The juice is then cooked down with some added sugar until it turns into jelly! |
It's really delicious... the flavor reminds me a bit of cranberries. The tree is still full of apples, so we're making another round of jelly today.
Flowers
Apotheca Delivery
As part of Susan's flower business, she delivers once a week to a local flower shop called Apotheca. I got to tag along this week and see the whole process.
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| Susan picking Dahlias |
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| bucket full o' Dahlias |
The focus point of the flower shop is the "make your own bouquet" walk-in cooler. This is where Susan's flowers go, charged by the stem.
There's something unique tucked into every corner of the shop, from miniature plants to locally-made body products. I could get lost in here.
Arranging for Chanticleer
As always, this week we did our fair share of vase arranging for the cart out front.
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| Susan called this arrangement "quite dramatic" |
Land leveling
The garden has ditches in some areas due to volunteers over-weeding and removing too much soil. Luckily there was an old compost pile with ready-to-go soil, so I used that to fill in where needed. This is an ongoing project.
Lots of background weeding
I've found it takes about 2 weeks for weeds to come back, so we're cycling through some beds that haven't been touched in a couple of weeks. It's never ending!
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| Weeding the corn and glads |
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| re-weeded perennial garden. |
*siiiiiggghh*
This was a roller coaster of emotion.
One of our big on-going projects is to clear out an area of trees/brush/weeds/etc. This requires everything from loppers to chainsaws. As Sean was chainsawing down some sumac trees, he noticed three baby birds on the ground. He figured that he probably took down a nest from one of the trees and the babies landed at his feet. Luckily none of them seemed harmed, but the nest and the mom were nowhere in sight. We used gloves to nestle them close together for warmth, and I ran up to the house to do some research. My hunch was correct that these were baby Cedar Waxwings. My mind went directly to years ago when I got handed the task by Pawtuckaway State Park management to take care of an orphaned juvenile Waxwing.
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| Baby Waxwings we found this week |
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| Juvenile Waxwing from 2 years ago at Pawtuckaway |
The resounding advice online was to create a new nest for the babies out of a basket, line it with tissues and straw, hang it up in a tree and hope that the mom returns. As we were doing this, we noticed an adult Cedar Waxwing flying around us, checking out what we were doing. The mom! We placed the babies a few feet off the ground, backed away, and waited for the mom to return. Only about 5 minutes later and she flew into the basket! We let out a giant sigh of relief and went back to our work with smiles on our faces.
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| Mom Cedar Waxwing in the nest with her babies |
Disaster struck about an hour later when Sean went back to check on the nest. Two of the babies were gone and the mom was nowhere to be seen. We waited around for the mom to return, but she never showed up. The remaining baby seemed to be dying quickly. It's likely that a hawk or fox found the nest, and then the mom abandoned her last baby. By nightfall, the remaining baby had died. A sad day, but we did what we could to help them. It was a reminder that anytime we change the composition of the land, we can drastically alter the ecology and destroy habitat within.
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Hopkington Fair
On a lighter note... this weekend was the Hopkington Fair! Growing up in Ohio, I went to plenty of fairs and festivals, but none of them were so "farmy". The Hopkington Fair is focused on local 4H groups, so there are lots of animal showing events. It was fun to walk through the barns and see the different breeds of cows, goats, and pigs.
A variety of shows and demonstrations were given to further entertain the crowds. I loved this wood carving via chainsaw. It was amazing how quickly he worked!
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| The coloration comes from various degrees of burning |
The "Axe Women of Maine" showed off their many talents through friendly competition...
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| log rolling |
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| speed chainsawing |
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| axe throwing |
The "Mounted Shooters" competed to see who could shoot down a trail of balloons on horseback the fastest. I panicked as the first cowboy approached with gun in hand, but soon realized that it was an air gun.
"Dock Dogs" was, by far, my favorite event of the day. This was a canine long-jump competition that ended in a pool. There were a few different techniques, but most of the owners would have their dog sit & stay at one end of the ramp as they walked to the pool side, threw a toy into the water, and then motioned the dogs to fetch it. The longest jump I saw was over 20 feet! The best part was a lab named Camo who always wanted to do about ten victory laps in the pool before she got out.
We just got a new WWOOFer arrival, Sue, who comes all the way from Switzerland. I think going to the fair was a crash-course in American culture for her (think fried dough and corndogs).
Less than two weeks left at Chanticleer Gardens! Time is flying.
nice nerd posting....seriously
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