One Tree Left to Prune

Growing up, we called the purple stone-fruit, prunes, it didn’t matter if they were plump and juicy, or small and tart, or even if they had already been dried. They were called prunes.

My sister-in-law reminds me that plums and prunes are practically the same thing. She demonstrates the notion when she says the trees look nicely plummed this year. Well that really doesn’t prove her point, does it? So I will continue to call them prunes.

In the orchard, all the prune/plum trees have been trimmed as has the Bartlett and Asian pears, the hazelnut trees and all but the last apple tree.

Only one tree left to prune, but I said that same statement last week, and the week before that. This constant rain has kept the orchard at a standstill in the pruning department. The last hold out is an old style, full sized tree that has red delicious apples on one side and a very late fall apple on the other. Both types of apples are fall type, but the very late apple tastes the sweetest after they have gone through a good frost. The sugar content in the apple rises after a frost and center of the fruit looks opaque when cut.

Some people refer to these hardy apples as ‘ice apples’ and the downfall of this treat is that they are not a good keeper variety after they have gone through a frost. The frost begins to break down the apple structure from the core. It creates a problem with the decision, to eat the apples when they are tart, or wait until the frost and hope that the cold is not one that drops the temperature so low that the fruit totally freezes and turns to mush as it thaws.