Apple Harvest

We have learned much about our little homestead in the past several months. We moved into the house last October, so we have now experienced the yard, rosebushes, fruit trees, grape arbor, and vine maples in their various states across a year.

We know now that 1) Grapes are nearly impossible to over-prune (I was sure that Eric had done them in for good), 2) Plums can go from ripe to way beyond over-ripe before you know what happened, 3) The peach tree was already dead before we moved in, 4) If you are lazy about pruning your roses, a bossy  Chinese house-sitter from next door may come pound on your back door and lecture you about proper rose-bush maintenance before announcing that she is going to cut some of your roses and take them home, and 5) We have two awesome apple trees, one sweet and one sour.

It turns out that the sweet apples make delicious cider, and we were lucky enough to be able to borrow Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean's amazing vintage cider press to do so. Think golden wood, cast iron, and an iron-embossed brand that states "Happy Valley Farm." I even made up a really special song about making apple cider, with which I serenaded Eric the entire time he was pressing--lucky man. I've been baking pies with the sour apples. Eric seems to think that all he needs to do is pick apples for me, and a pie will appear. Must be apple magic!