No, not my apples--my apple tree. Yesterday, as we got ready for the installation of our food forest garden [1] in two weeks, we were horrified to discover that the trunk of our apple tree had caved in. On further investigation we found it was hollow at least four feet up the tree and the base was rotted.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of chain saws--across the street. A crew was taking down a neighbor's tree. John ran over, negotiated a good price, and now we are less one tree.

But! Now I feel Phelan's pain [2]. I processed only one big bowl of apples--enough to fill my soup pot--into applesauce. Well, AM processing, they're still boiling down, to be partly eaten tonight with sausages, garlic mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and salad (German, no?), partly taken to church tomorrow night for the potluck, and the rest to be eaten or stored. I was pretty damn tired of apples by the time I got that one pot done, and was sticky from head to toe with apple juice. I can only imagine how bad it is for her--bushels and bushels worth.

I tell you, I'll miss that tree. The yard looks very weird without it, and it gave four different varieties of really delicious apples. But once the food forest [3] is in, not only will things get a lot more low maintenance, we'll have a wider variety of perennial food crops and the apple tree(s) will be in a more logical spot than where it was. And I'll be investing in: 1) a better juicer (Hata and I are considering coercing the spousal units into a shared fruit press since they have fruit trees and grape vines too); and 2) an apple peeler/corer/slicer gizmo [4]. I could have sworn we had one but it's vanished.

I'll tell more about what's happening in my yard in an entry soon. Here's a preview [5], and if you're in the Portland area, I invite you to come take the workshops and work in the garden. It's gonna be a great time.

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