I’ve not been very good at keeping up this blog. This year was a fun year. I was able to get some crab apples from my buddies over at Eastman’s Antique Apple Orchard. I foraged some apples from the East side of the Saginaw River and some from the West side of the Saginaw River. I blended those with the apples that I had picked from my trees. Made about five gallons of cider with somewhere around 42 varieties. Not sure on the exact amount because I had to buy some cider from Lehman’s Green Apple Barn to top off my carboy. I know of 30+ varieties that I put in. Also, I acquired five gallons of bittersweet juice from Mike Beck at Uncle John’s during their bulk cider sale. I really like the Beck family; Mike and Dede are great people.
The trees did pretty well this year. All of them had fruit, including the Northern Spy which I didn’t expect to have anything for another 5-10 years. The beat up Newton Pippin had a few gnarly apples on them.
Ordered a few cider apple trees again this year. Same kind of trees…Kingston Black and Dabinett as well as a Spitzenberg for Aunt Dee and Uncle Tim.
cottrellorchard 