🌿 ROSEMARY VEREY ON STORING APPLES 🌿

November

Early Root House,
empty shelves, empty root-crop-bins,
former Glossop orchard,
Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA.

"The problem of where to store our apples is now a perennial one, for the stables and hay and apple lofts were converted 35 years ago into retirement house for my father and mother-in-law; now this same building is my own home. Time and generations move swiftly on. When we came to live at Barnsley House, there were three large and prolific cooking-apple trees in the garden, all of the different varieties and keeping qualities. They lasted the winter through. The ritual of picking and storing went on for days, supervised by my father-in-law using child labor-our sons. Everyone enjoyed it, with much friendly calling of instructions––'Can't you see that large red one by your right hand?'––and to-ing and froing of large log baskets filled to the brim and taken gently on wheelbarrows. Picking was always more exciting than storing, which after a while became tedious. One full apple tray was stacked upon another, leaving enough space between each fruit for air circulation around the ripening apples. With careful management, they lasted well into March, and throughout the winter stewed apples or huge baked ones were a regular part of our daily fare. On Sundays it would be something more exotic; Apple Betty, crumble, pie or dumplings. Then two of the old apple trees died, one from old age and the other from honey fungus. The third was hard pruned and in spite of its age still bears quantities of the pale yellow fruit of a quality hard to beat; when baked they become lighter and more feathery than any souffle. We planted new apple trees to replace the old, some as potential standards with spreading heads, others as neatly trained affairs growing on dwarf stock. There is a Bramley and a Charles Ross, two Cox's, three Sunsets and two Tydeman's Late Orange. Who, I wondered, as I laid them gently on a tray, was Tydeman or Charles Ross? As the trees grow so does the harvest and this year we have had a bumper crop which we have thoroughly enjoyed picking and storing. All the Laxton's Fortune were eaten in October and even earlier, their juiciness enjoyed by all. The Cox's are awaiting their ripening later. The huge Bramleys and Charles Ross will be eaten after Christmas. Each apple has been laid carefully on slatted trays in a spare bedroom, the floor surrounding them alive with mousetraps. A heavy pungent aroma hangs about the room while the apples are giving off their gases. In 1618 William Lawson's advice was as relevant as it is today. 'For keeping, lay them in a dry loft, on heaps, ten or fourteen days, that they may sweat. Then dry them with a soft and cleane cloath and lay them thin abroad. Long keeping fruit would be turned once a month softly."
From: A Countrywoman's Year by an internationally known author, gardener, lecturer, Rosemary Verey. Little, Brown and Company. 1989.

🌿 HALLOWEEN ON SHAW ISLAND 🌿

Shaw Island Sculpture
(Private collection)
 by the honorable Richard Beyer
(1925-2012)
Creator of Seattle's favorite public art
"Waiting for the Interurban."

Anno thirty-one October 2016
Happy Halloween from Shaw Island, WA.

🌿 English Apple 🌿 BRAMLEY

Bramley Apple
Shaw Island, WA.
Anno eighteen October 2016.
"The best English apples by long training know how to 
behave in a pie; they melt but do not squelch; they inform
but do not predominate. The early apples, grateful as we
are for their re-appearance, are not true pie-makers.
We pardon these adolescents, who do the best they can,
but we pass on to the later autumn apples to find pie
manners at their best. And what should an apple do 
in a pie? Well I think it should preserve the individuality 
 and form, not go to a pale, mealy squash, but become
 soft and golden. In flavour it must be sharp or what's the
use of your Barbados sugar?"
Edward Bunyard. 
The Epicure's Companion, 1937

The first Bramley apple tree was grown from pips by a little girl in England, over two hundred years ago. For more history see this site.

🌿 MADRONA SEEDS coming down 🌿

Madrona berries
(Arbutus menziesii)
Shaw Island seeds freshly gathered 
by mother of the groom, Corinne.  
💞 Congrats to Regis and Chrissy 💞
who decorated their day with the heart-warming 
fall colors of Indian corn, gourds and pumpkins. 

🌿 OCTOBER THE FIRST, 2016 🌿

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables. 

Medlars, rosehips & Asian Pears
Anno One October 2016,  
Shaw Island, WA.

For Michael, Jontay, Lily, Hanrah, Suzanne,
Erica, Greg, Thea, Bella, Jessica,  Harvey,
Mary, Mary, Annie, Mack, Tom & Rachel,
 Debbi, Luci, and all the writers of kind notes,
left at the Gatehouse on Squaw Bay Rd.
Thank you.  

🌿 NATURAL DEER REPELLENT 🌿

Rosa 'Kathleen' and tired foliage of culinary Sage
(Salvia officinalis) with Moon Snail from Indian Cove.
Mideke hand thrown porcelain pots.
On Shaw Island this day of twenty September 2016.

"A Swedish correspondent, Erik Malm, who read my note on rabbits in the garden, has sent me his recipe for controlling deer, who started making sorties into his garden from the nearby forest, but grew bolder and bolder until they 'are practically born in the garden.' Pretty though they are, they are too fond of flowers as fodder (rosebuds are a special favorite) to make ideal garden pets.
      Mr. Malm noticed that they never touched plants with aromatic leaves. So he experimented with a decoction of common sage in water, boiled for 15 minutes, which he put in a spray bottle and sprayed over the plants that deer preferred.
      It worked, he says, like a charm. He was soon able to abandon drenching whole beds with his sage-water and just gave a daily squirt or two here and there. The deer, it seems, have become like Ferdinand the bull: admirers, instead of consumers, of flowers."
Above words by Internationally known writer Hugh Johnson. Hugh Johnson on Gardening. London. The Royal Horticulture Society. 1993. Gatehouse Library.
      Editor's note: Deer are thick on Shaw Island and don't mind eating botanicals that appear on several "deer resistant" lists. This cooked brew of sage leaves has helped me discourage deer browsing on a foliage plant in my driveway wild garden. A good reason to plant more sage. 

🌿 CLEMATIS seeds 🌿

CLEMATIS HELSINGBORG

Clematis "Helsingborg"

Life Cycle: Herbaceous Perennial Vine

Plant Height: 12' to 15' at maturity

Plant Width (Spread) 10'

Zone: USDA 5 to 9

Flower: Purple color.

Light Exposure: full sun to light shade.

Seasonal Interest: Spectacular spring show of rich purple flowers followed by fluffy seed heads in late summer.

Notes: Prefers rich, well-drained soil. Plant vines that are well-rooted & minimum 2 years old. Clematis are heavy feeders and appreciate fertilizer in Spring.
This Clematis blooms on old stems AND new growth, so best to prune lightly in late spring once the first flush of flowers is finished. Easy to grow and easy to control the small vine.

Well established, overgrown plants can be cut back to 12" tall in winter to remove tangles, allowing robust new stems to fill out the plant, but will not flower the next year.

These notes are from the Elizabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden where they list Clematis "Helsingborg" on the list of "Great Plant Picks" with cultural information, a great guide for PNW gardeners. The list contains the best plants for the maritime climate of the Puget Sound area. 

And here is what the great gardener/book author had to say regarding the soil this plant enjoys:

"The best kind of soil from every point of view is that which is rich in humus: decayed vegetable matter like leaf mould, peat, farmyard manure, garden compost, straw, spent hops, sewage sludge, road sweepings, ground bark as a forestry by-product, deep litter chicken manure based on sawdust or wood shavings. When I am asked what I recommend as a soil conditioner for Clematis, I think of all these things but which to recommend depends so much on the individual's locality. What she can acquire or make most conveniently at the lower cost." Lloyd, C. Clematis. Capability's Books. 1989.

🌿 Wordless Wednesday

Seeds coming in,
anno two August 2016.
I've never seen a Shaw Island Phormium 
plant produce seeds, (upper right.)
Thanks, Chris C!