Recent content by sandbur

Plant both Trailman and Chestnut. Trailman ripens about 10-14 days earlier than Chestnut for me.

I had a client who had beef cattle and his brother had a small commercial apple orchard. The brother told me that if you want a real treat, make a chestnut crab pie. He said it is a lot of work to peal them. I have noticed that young trees with a light crop often produce the largest apples. We...

Be sure and taste some early in the ripening period and then later. Report back on which tastes best.

Rinse and pick through the apples or crabs. Crabs the dice of Trailman, Rescue, or Dolgo are just cooked with a bit of water. Definitely cut larger apples in half and cutting apple crabs the size of chestnut crabs in half speeds cooking. Then we run the cooked apples through one of these...

I transplanted a handful or two of white spruce seedlings, probably just for memories sake. I am not sure if any of my family will see those or appreciate them. At this age, we need to do what we like to do and forget the rest. Both of us could do a better job of managing our hunting lands...

The answer to the original question very much depends on growing season, climate, deer numbers etc. No definite answer for all areas or all years. I am happy with my renter planting about 30 acres of alfalfa and about 40 acres of corn. He is a dairyman who knows what he is doing. Sweet corn...

I spend most of my time with the apple trees. Yesterday I tilled and planted a shooting lane in a corn plot. My renter takes care of the corn plot. I do less and less with TSI and tree planting. At a certain age, you realize that you probably won’t see the benefits. Plus, there are fish to...

This isn’t a crab but is a first fruit for me to taste. Boris. I think I skipped one spraying and maybe both on this tree.

the text didn’t post for some reason… Lots of crabs on some of the seedlings that are Outback.

The fruit load has tipped the central leader, but I am not going to worry about it.

We freeze it.

I had a message that the only red apple he had was Pink Pearl. The orchard is on the edge of a small town where Red Splendor is in the yards. I suspect Red Splendor in the background.

I don’t think any apples are ready to harvest here, but Norland should be getting very close. I only see one cluster of apples on my Notland this year. My home orchard is on a gentle south slope and had a bumper crop last year. Many trees are resting and I think 90 degree days this spring then...

The grass is about 8 foot tall with no browsing except for what I suspect is from locals. There are about two hundred acres under irrigation. My woods is on the right. I only found one small deer track. My neighbor says he has one small buck around and no other deer. It sounds like a tough...