November 17, 2024

Good morning!

Can you believe it’s the last week of the CSA? Around here, that means the last week for donuts ‘til next year, though the apple and cider supply remains strong! We’ll be doing deliveries next week on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and have fresh-pressed cider, hard cider, apples, and pie.

Thank you for participating this season! I appreciate it so much.

November 10, 2024

This is gonna be fast — I have to get a basketball player to a last-minute scheduled tournament in Anoka on the way to deliver boxes, so I’ll have to let the video speak for itself this week:

November 3, 2024

The apples are all picked — though not juiced — and we’re done being open for the season, though we’ll have two special events coming up (more on that). The endings that come with the growing season are always bittersweet but also mark a beginning — for example, I’m so eager to get back into the cidery to work on some ciders I’ve had in the works and try out some new techniques that I’ve been contemplating.

This week’s apples are Liberty (scab resistant McIntosh child from Purdue Rutgers Illinois), Snowsweet (U of M), Frostbite (U of M), and Haralson (U of M).

Since we have only two weeks left of the CSA, let me know if you have any special requests.

So a few heads up:

• We’ll be doing a 15-year anniversary celebration/Vina release with a pork and cider dinner. Date is TBD but I’ll figure it out later today (it is 100% based on Audrey’s basketball tournament schedule). The date will be November 9 or 16.

• We’re hosting a home cidermakers sensory evaluation training session at 2:00 on Sunday, November 10.

• And as always, I’ll be delivering on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but I’ll let you know when that ordering page is active.

Enjoy the hunkering down that comes with the gray skies of November.

October 27, 2024

Finally! All the interesting apples are coming in and today’s apples are a combination of eight different varieties. So many of the apple I grow are Zone 5 and require a longer growing season, which is why I always have so much coming in out of the orchard right at the tail end of the season.

The cider today is Wassail. Jumping the season a bit? Perhaps. But soon it’s going to taste just right. Mark your calendars for this 2025’s Wassail on January 11.

October 20, 2024

October 20 and it’s a beautiful day! There were some embers in the bonfire from last night’s Sausage Saturday so I threw a few logs on to keep it going, but I certainly don’t think there’ll be an actual need for it with the temps forecasted for today.

In today’s video I was watering the pigs so didn’t get a chance to pull out apples, so here’s a pic for you:

October 13, 2024

Morning!

Apples this week:

• Empire: Delicious x McIntosh. Cornell (NY), 1966. Sweet – from its parent Delicious (which itself is a parent of Red Delicious, aka Hawkeye from Iowa) – and tart – from its parent McIntosh. Empire has more in common with its McIntosh parent given its shape (squat) and its white flesh that resists browning. The Empire is to Cornell’s breeding program what Honeycrisp is to the U of M’s apple breeding program, in other words, its crown jewel. Empire grows a “well-behaved tree,” which means it branches at favorable angles and it bears fruit annually.

• Cortland: Ben Davis x McIntosh. Cornell University, New York, 1915. Cortland is widely grown on the East Coast and also in Quebec and Ontario. Like other McIntosh progeny, Cortland apples are squat with dark red to purplish skin, white flesh, and have a “vinous” flavor (which means that it has some flavor qualities of wine). Cortland is excellent for eating when freshly picked, but its texture suffers in storage. It cooks up saucy.

• Honeycrisp: Keepsake x MN1627 (Duchess of Oldenburg x Golden Delicious). University of Minnesota, 1991. The Honeycrisp apple needs no introduction. It is the crown jewel of the best apple variety breeding program in the world and is surpassed in flavor and texture only by its children, most notably the SweeTango. Since the patent on Honeycrisp expired, it has been crossed with innumerable varieties, most of which include the word “crisp” in its name. The key to growing a good Honeycrisp, though, is our northern climate, which contributes both to coloring and to acid.

• Snowsweet: U of M release from 2006. Sharon x Connell Red. A crowd pleaser: its firm, fine-grained flesh is low in acid with a sweet, rich flavor. It has bright white flesh that’s slow to oxidize (turn brown) when exposed to air. Sharon is a cross of McIntosh x Longfield, developed in Iowa in 1906. Connell Red is a chance bud of Fireside, an apple variety released by the U of M in 1943, which itself is a McIntosh x Longfield cross. Apple genetics are so interesting, aren’t they?

Apparently we’re continuing our trend of McIntosh-heavy apple parentage this week, aren’t we? Something I noted on the video that I want to point out for those of you who don’t have the patience for videos (that’s me!), is that the Honeycrisp look a little different — a little shinier, a little bigger. The reason for that is because they came from my partner’s orchard. He’s pretty much a Honeycrisp specialist and he grows ‘em good and big! Thought it might be fun to have a big one every once in a while. I always claimed that I wouldn’t sell apples from other orchards because I don’t know how they’re grown and apple growers can use a lot of pesticide materials to get a crop to market. But in this case, I know exactly how they were grown . . . because I was there!

The cider of the week is Jackalope, which is fresh-hopped MN Mule — so lime, ginger, and hops. The hops this year came from Grumpy’s NE in Minneapolis. The entire flavor profile of Jackalope is different this year because the growing season seemed to grow hops that were lighter in flavor, less citrusy, and more bitter. The effect is more subtle overall with a cool bitter cut-off at the end of the glass.

October 6, 2024

I’m going to hit two extra-Minnesotan points for you this morning: in the video, I reference a Minnesotan sense of superiority when comparing the U of M’s best apple to Cornell’s best apple; and also — highs in the eighties again this week??? Now that I got that out of my system . . .

My best apples this week are Honeycrisp, Cortland, Empire, and Honeygold. Enjoy! And I chose Rustic Apple for the cider this week because I just made a batch of it and it is deliiiiiiiiicious!

Enjoy this video where I talk yet again about the insect pressures apple growers experienced this year. And next to the video, a pic of my mom and daughter packing CSA apples in the cooler.

September 29, 2024

Good morning, folks!

In the video, I couldn’t recall the Macoun cross: it’s a 1923 release from New York that’s McIntosh x Jersey Black. Kind of a cult-favorite type of apple around here since it’s so hard to come by. And Hubbardston Nonesuch is an apple discovered in Massachusetts in the late 1700’s.

September 22, 2024

Greetings, CSA subscribers! I’m hitting the road with your boxes but made a video for you first.

For apples this week: Zestar!, SweeTango, McIntosh, and Ginger Gold.
For weekly Essence subscribers, I put Cherry Rhubarb in the box; for half-share subscribers, you got MN Mule.

September 15, 2024

Good morning, everyone! I made a video before I hit the road today and want to give you a quick update on the contents of your boxes today.

For apples, we have Zestar!, SweeTango, Ginger Gold, and Chestnut Crab. The cider is Minnesota Mule and the juice blend is made from Zestar!, State Fair, Ginger Gold apples (primarily) with some McIntosh and Paula Red thrown in for a bit of tart.

The CSA is back, baby!

I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it again this year because this year’s crop is that much lighter than last year’s — but you all talked me into it and I am so happy to do it.

Here are the key deets:

• You can sign up for a weekly delivery on Sundays, which will run for ten weeks;

• Or you can sign up for an every-other-weekly delivery, which will also run for ten weeks.

• The start date is Sunday, September 15 for weekly subscribers; half of every-other-week subscribers will start on September 15 and the other half will start on September 22. After you sign up, I’ll let you know which date will be your start date.

• Pick up locations are the same as last year: Dogwood Coffee St. Paul (9:30 drop-off); Dogwood Coffee East Lake (10:00 drop-off); Dogwood Coffee NE (10:30 drop-off); and France 44 (11:00 drop-off). The orchard is also an option as a pick-up site. If you’d thank your site hosts for serving as a drop-off location, I would appreciate it!

No big changes from last year; I will plan on a weekly update right here on this page and a heads-up email on Sunday mornings to let you know that the CSA boxes are on their way.

Essence of the Orchard
This CSA package offers a basic version of what we do around here — apples, fresh-pressed cider, fermented cider, and cider donuts.

• Half peck of apples

• 1/2 gallon fresh-pressed cider

• Half-dozen cider donuts

• A four-pack of cider or one 750-ml bottle

Freshie Fresh
This package is alcohol-free and bumps up the quantities of apples, fresh-pressed cider, and cider donuts.

• Peck of apples

• Gallon of fresh-pressed cider

• Dozen cider donuts

Freshie-Fresh with Fermentation
More apples, more fresh-pressed cider, more donuts, and hard cider too!

• Peck of apples

• Gallon of fresh-pressed cider

• Dozen cider donuts

• A four-pack of cider or one 750-ml bottle