October already?

October apples are my favorite.

I miss picking apples like these from a friend's tree. She moved away and she had the best "ugly" apples I've ever tasted. My mother and I used to go over and pick all we wanted and we always took plenty and went back for more. I have never been able to buy apples that good. Her house was built in 1900 and the apple trees were very old too. Heirloom apples are the best. I had another day in the salt mines cleaning out kitchen cabinets. I started another donate pile and I think I see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. xo

Apples and Fall are Perfect Together

This is the big antique wooden charger in the middle of my kitchen farm table. It is 25-1/2 inches wide at its widest point and is out of round due to shrinkage. I love it. I bought an 8-pound bag of Cortland Apples yesterday at Wegmans, a large new grocery store just beyond Morristown. It's not a big box store but it does have family packs of certain items. Yesterday there were all varieties of apples in 8-pound bags for $5.99, what a bargain! I counted them when I got home and there were 18. I put half on the table and the other half in my crisper. They are everything I hoped they would be in an eating apple -- crisp, juicy and sweet but not too sweet. I love an apple that snaps when you bite into it and I would have been crushed had they been mushy. Now I am all set with fruit for two weeks. They don't have stickers on them either, and I like that. They remind me of the old-fashioned apples my mother and I used to pick at my oldest friend in New Jersey's house but she moved a couple of years ago and now I have to take my chances with apples and buy before I can taste them.

I put this photo on Instagram yesterday but liked it enough to put it on my blog too. I am looking forward to Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages tonight on PBS. After that, I'll watch something I have recorded because there's nothing else on that interests me. Enjoy your Friday night and have a great weekend. I turned on the furnace for the first time on Wednesday and last night it got below freezing. I am so glad I emptied all of my galvanized watering cans and put them in the garage yesterday before they froze and exploded. I learned that lesson the hard way. xo

Orchard Floor paved w/ Fallen Apples

This photo is stunning. I want to know how the apples got so beautifully arranged. Is this an art installation or exhibit? I will post the answer later if I can find it. In the meantime, just enjoy the visual. Photo: Johnathan Ryan

I posted this photo on Instagram and got my answer. This is not staged. It is an orchard in Ireland after a Hurricane.

The storm brought a lot of rain which swelled nearby rivers and caused the field to flood. 

"The flood water gathered all the apples and as it settled down it left a carpet of apples." Jonathan added.

This is how Hurricane Ophelia left the Bulmers Orchard in Tipperary, Ireland in mid October 2017

The Bulmers Orchard after the hurricane (Image: Photo: Johnathan Ryan @Tipperaryphotos.com)

His stunning shot shows the ground covered in a carpet of apples which were blown off the trees. The apple trees which were covered in fruit are now nearly bare after the storm. Hopefully, this won't cause a cider shortage later in the year...read the article in the Irish Mirror.

---------------------------------------------

More photos here and another article on these apples and the storm from BBC News