Susan Keene Author

A Different Sort of Fall.

At the bottom of this post is a recipe you will all love.

Fall just isn’t what it usually is. Of the 119 apple trees we have, only the Arkansas Black remained on the trees. Too much rain. The pumpkins rotted, and I only saw one pear tree with fruit on it.

To grow plants, fruit, even hay, the main ingredient after decent soil is rain. Let’s stick to fruit. It’s the only thing I know much about growing.

Since we don’t use any kind of strays, our first enemy is bugs. Bugs that winter over, bugs that lay their eggs in the trees in the spring, and bugs that bore into the tree itself.

Did I mention birds? Crows love apples and they are intimidatingly.  They fly around in groups of seven, called a murder. All birds love apples but most are afraid of simple things like a  CD tied to a string and allowed to spin in the wind.

It scares the bee-gee-bees out of song birds, even some of the big birds like hawks, but not crows.

Crows are smart. I read a book about them once.  They are very impressive.

Did I mention deer, raccoons, turtles, the neighbors horse when they get out and come to have a dessert of apples?

None of those creatures I mentioned above eat an entire apple. They are actually like small children. They take a bite or two and move on to another piece of fruit. Deer don’t like the apples on the ground. They only want those off the trees.

Then there are chilling nights. It takes a certain amount of cold nights before harvest to ripen an apple.

I almost forgot cedar trees. They cause cedar apple rust on apples, roses and a host of other plants. The only people who don’t have apple cedar rust are the ones who spray.

We use liquid copper, but copper kills sheep and we have sheep so it is a delicate operation.

At least we have Arkansas Black. They are more tart than Granny Smith. The longer we store them in a cool dry place not touching one another, the sweeter they become.

Last years we were still eating fresh apples in March.

If you would like for the children in your life to learn about growing apples in an orchard. Let them follow Diggitty the Dog. She knows how its done and will pass it on to your little ones in a fun and funny way.

click on the link below.

http://tinyurl.com/ztyy7fw

Yummy two ingredient dessert pumpkin lovers won’t be able to get enough of.

Before I go. If you love pumpkin and can’t wait for all the pumpkin flavored drinks, muffins, and bagels to hit the shelf, try this simple and scrumptious recipe. It is only 2 ingredients and simple , simple, simple.

Take a spice cake mix (any brand) add a can of pumpkin. Not pumpkin pie mix, plain old pumpkin. buy the big 15  1/2 oz can.

Pour the cake mix into a bowl. Add the pumpkin and beat on low speed until it is cake batter consistency. Don’t add anything else. Bake it according to the instructions on the cake mix box.