The Adventures of CrazyED the beach sand guy

[greyphase]

Thanks for the tour, Matt. Those Kerr pics have gotten me excited. Plan on grafting some next spring. The Black Oxford are looking good too. I've got one 2nd leaf on Ant. rootstock and one 2nd leaf grafted to a wild crab. To me those Centennial Crabs are about as good tasting as a Crab gets.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

x2, Greyphase! Kerr look great. Was gonna order 2 Kerr this past spring but another guy talked me out of them. I ordered 2 Kerr for next spring from Cummins on B-118. Great looking ground Ed. Looks like lots of fruit & hard mast for your critters in a couple years. Are the Centennial crabs sweet.... tart.... cider-ish??? I've got one in the ground for 2 yrs. - just wondering. Thanks for the pix & tour!

 

[sandbur]

Ed-I anxious to try a centennial or kerr when they finally are old enough to bare fruit. How does the centennial compare to a chestnut crab for taste?

 

[CrazyEd]

sorry art I've never had a Chestnut Crab so I can't comment.

 

[buckvelvet]

I'm also quite curious about the taste of a chesnut crab! I have 1 in its first leaf at home right now.

 

[sandbur]

I'm also quite curious about the taste of a chesnut crab! I have 1 in its first leaf at home right now.

I have always said that the chestnut crab is my favorite, but I picked 3 buckets of dolgos today. They smell great and I ate a half dozen or so. Lots of dolgos on the ground and nary a deer track.

 

[sandbur]

Yep...dolgos are far from my favorite for out of hand eating. I'd put them slightly above an ornamental crab :eek:

They were the only apples we could grow in northern Mn. as kid and I learned to like them. Most people do not like them.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

How old are your dunstans Ed? Any nuts yet?

 

[SD51555]

I'm a sweet apple kind of guy. I like eating chestnut crabs. They've got a sweeter flavor that is really more of a lack of sour or bitter than a burst of sugar. They are a very crisp apple with a russet-like skin. Very good. I just wish they'd hang on the tree a little longer.

 

[CrazyEd]

Ed,

Keep us posted on those Kerrs. How large/small are the apples? How late will they drop?

I have a few but, a late spring frost took out their blossoms this year. Maybe next year will be the charm.

I think Kerr and centennial are both about the same size and they are good size at that, especially for a crab. You can see the two close up pictures of the centennial, one I held my thumb up for reference, the other holding in the palm of my hand. I would say they are both easily bigger than a golf ball.

I will let you know how long they hang.

 

[CrazyEd]

How old are your dunstans Ed? Any nuts yet?

I bought them from chestnut hill farms as seedlings in April of 2012. I kept them at home in my garden the first year and babied them. I planted out on the farm last year in 2013. They survived an extremely harsh winter. I would call this year 2014 their 3rd year. No nuts yet.

 

[Tree Spud]

Ed cool stuff and pictures ... great eye for the camera.

Even with our tough Marquette County soils, our rye broadcast seedings should have benefitted from all this rain and hot weather the past few weeks.

 

[CrazyEd]

We put up a new tower blind last weekend. Built from scratch, looks pretty good and was about 65% cheaper than a shadowhunter blind. My retired father basically built most of it in his garage and we just took it up and it took about 6 hours to put up. We have to build some more permanent steps but it is ready to go for the season. It's pretty tight for bow hunting but will work great for my fathers photography and gun hunting.

The blind overlooks one of our first major habitat projects we documented, a beautiful stand of NWSG & forb planting in the middle of jackpine thicket that formed after a tornado ripped through about 20 years ago. Beautiful view if you ask me. My father has used a ground blind in this location for many years but it was so difficult to photograph anything due to the height of the warm season grasses.

 

[CrazyEd]

Another window offers a view into my primary orchard of about 40 trees. This doesn't look like much, and we plan to spray everything that is green and seed with NWSG. That will be a priority next year. As as the jackpines meet NWSG, it creates wonderful edge and the deer feel very comfortable in the NWSG.

Out another window is a work in process struggling foodplot. It doesnt look like much but there are some turnips in here the size of golfballs, and the winter rye continues to improve. Maybe someday it will be nice and green. Organic material is improving. Monster Crabapple immediately below.

 

[greyphase]

Now that's a "room with a view" :D.

 

[bueller]

Some great views out of that stand. I'm sure it will be a producer!!!

 

[CrazyEd]

It's amazing what the addition of a waterhole can do for ya. I have a trail camera over ours and the number of species visiting within about 25 days is pretty impressive.

 

[CrazyEd]

I'm not posting pictures of Robin, Morning Dove, some other small bird I did not identify.

 

[CrazyEd]

 

[greyphase]

Good job Matt. Looks like it is indeed a popular place. I imagine in your "beach sand" soil ponds are pretty scarce. Is it just filled with rainwater runoff?