Apple Junction

I think today I fell in love with Manitoba more deeply!

Over the past week I have spent a few hours each day with this view.







Growing up with apples in Ontario I wasn't sure how these worked. But since we appear to have a bumper crop both on the ground and in the trees I thought I should be a true to my heritage and get preserving. I am pleased to report that 6 quarts of crab apples soaked in water and cream of tartar made 5 quarts of juice! I also made crab apple jelly that turned out to be the perfect shade of clear pink. We were very pleased with both canning ventures.

On my first day of picking as high as I could reach with our ladder on the one tree, I moved on to the next tree. (We think we have about three trees with good sized apples on our yard but there are about 4 - 5 more in the woods with even bigger apples that we already missed.) But that tree was FULL of wasps. I could be way off but my guess was that the apples were sweeter. They even looked different. After my second sting I decided to take a break.
In the evening when the wasps were back at their nests we grabbed another bucket of apples then I took a few in to try.
THEY WERE AMAZING!!!
I NEVER would have guessed they could be the perfect combination of sweet and sour. The flesh was very white and the apples very juicy. The wasps have very good taste. I suddenly feel proud of our little crab apple orchard and am no longer annoyed at the mess of the fallen apples and the attraction they are to the wasps. I have even been wondering about pruning them next year. Hard core crab apple tree growers! (Pun intended:))

That evening Dave went out while it was dark and raked up a lot of the fallen apples hoping to keep the wasps away a bit more for future days. They really are crazy out there! I even saw a fight between a large wasp and a large black hard shelled beetle. They were really going after each other and all of a sudden the beetle froze. I thought maybe he was dead but he must have just got stung because all of a sudden he turned over and walked away! Interesting!

In sharing our preserving fortunes with friends we found out about a family who will juice apples and crab apples. Their business is called Apple Junction. They reside in Landmark and some of you may know them from the items they bring to the garden market in St. Norbert. They have that Mum's truck. After calling them I was booked in with an appointment for today at lunch. After making the appointment I spent a few more evenings up on the ladder collecting as many apples as I could. After two wasp stings I chose to pick in the evenings because the wasps aren't around then. I even wore garden gloves, long sleeves and long pants!

Today was the day!! I was giddy with excitement while waiting our turn for making the cider. I have such good memories of drinking home made apple cider in Ontario. The family was so kind and knew their way around the equipment very well. I have a special spot in my heart for these home stations because I grew up in a cucumber station. Anyways, while watching the apples get dumped, washed, crushed, strained and pressed, we tried to guess how many litres of juice our apples might give us. Megan guessed 18L, Lauren 16L and I 20L. Alexander had no guess. We were all way off! We got 40L of fresh apple cider!!! We were so excited all the way home and put Dave on speaker phone after we tried our first fresh glass. It was amazing!!! The kids have even offered to help pick next year! What a gift of Autumn God brought to our house the day before school starts.

Here are a few pictures of our adventure for the day!












How 'bout dem apples!