apple trees and caterpillars

The apple trees have received their seasonal pruning and the buds are swelling.  It's such a joy to behold the newly pruned shape of the apple trees.  

We're expecting a monumental caterpillar year on Mayne Island this year.  Everybody's talking about it.  It's cyclical.  Every 7 or 8 years the caterpillar population goes wild.   Dave (he does the pruning for me) was picking off lots of egg cases from the branches as he pruned.

The tent caterpillars around here love apple trees.  They also love the alders that grow outside the garden fence and surround the garden.  They love the cherry tree and the currant and gooseberry bushes too...roses too....sigh.....

I began my pest control efforts last summer, picking off the egg masses that had just recently been deposited by the moths.  The cases are so interesting.  Really!...like styrofoam on the outside.  Once you peel it off from the branch, you can see all the little round eggs on the inside that are just waiting for the following May and the sun's warmth so they can hatch and devour the tree leaves.

It's a satisfying feeling to peel those suckers off a branch.  I became slightly obsessed with collecting up big piles of egg masses.  lol.

It was summertime and so there were quite a few yellow jacket wasps around and it took them no time to find my collections....they were interested in dinner!  It was amazing to watch them chow down....(they actually started dragging pieces away from the pile!!)  wow.

This is what the egg mass looks like when on the branch in the summer time...looks like this one's on one of the jostaberry bushes.

Oh. oh.  This one got away on me last summer.  When an egg mass is left on the tree and the eggs hatch, this is what happens and it's best to remove the tent as soon as you see it....before the wrigglies get this big...yuck!

It's much easier to remove the eggs in the winter...no leaves and fruit on the tree to get in your way and the rainy season softens them so they come off the branch much easier.

They look quite different after the winter rains, you can really see all the little eggs on the outside....

This one looks like some of the eggs are gone...a little birdy has been feeding, perhaps?  I don't know, I wonder....

Anyway, I noticed that a few recent visitors to the garden (all who live on Mayne Island) didn't know about these caterpillar egg sacks....and were so interested to learn.  I remember how happy I was when I learned about them back when I first moved here so I hope this will be helpful to some.....it really is so much easier to take as many of these off now.  For me, the wielding of loppers while on ladder to cut tented branches is a garden misery so the fewer of those adventures I have, the better...

Dreaming of APPLES!  ....and hoping for a  good harvest this year!

Thanks Mayne Island

for being such a nice place to live....

What a lovely Thanksgiving weekend we're having!
Mayne Island's last outdoor Farmer's Market of the year happens on Thanksgiving weekend. So on Saturday, the sun came out and we just had to make sure to go....

Deacon Vale Farm's truck stand is always a pleasure to see at the market, brimming full of all the wonderful veggies, fruit and other things they grow and make (as long as you get there early enough) ...there's always a lineup!

Look at this beautiful celery! Why didn't I get any?!! I was so distracted by taking my photos and chatting that I didn't even think of it....can you imagine the amazingness of those beautiful and nutritious green leaves in a soup?....silly, silly me.

Some beautiful yellow tomatoes on their trusses from Deacon Vale Farm. The farm website is here.

A friend's basket of Mayne Island grown goodies that he was collecting as he walked through the market.....

Islanders chatting at the market.....

Hatake's stand with some of the lovely apples and pears that they grow on display. Helen and John named their farm "hatake" in honour of the Japanese people who farmed the land before WWII. It's how you say "farm" in Japanese.

Some of Helen's beautiful naturally died yarn.....she uses things like blackberry, coreopsis, asparagus....and other wonderful things that I can't think of right now....to create these awesome colours. A link to their website is here.

After the market on Saturday, the Home Hardware Garden Centre hosted a workshop on composting led by Atsuo Sumi who grows vegetables on Mayne Island for a restaurant in Vancouver. I found a nice little read about him and the chef here. I really enjoyed the workshop...it's so nice to learn about how other growers do things.

On Sunday, a few ambitious and enthusiastic Mayne Islanders held a community apple pressing on the grounds of the Ag Hall. This is the sign announcing the event at the Saturday Market. They're going to do it again on the 24th!!....So if you missed it, you have another chance.

Mayne Island seems to have a lot of apple trees. Look at all the apples everyone brought!
....and look at everyone getting down to the business of juicing the apples. Check out that nice big jug of cider there :-)

This press is wonderful to watch....the juice comes gently flowing through the mesh cylinder and down to the bottom tray where it pours out the spout.....

.....and is funnelled into a bottle....

The bottles are filling up....how nice it'll be to have for the winter....life is good! Thanks to all the folks who made this wonderful thing happen. If you're on Mayne Island on Sunday October 24th between 10am-2pm, go check it out! At Ag Hall. Bring some of your apples or ask your neighbour if you can collect from their abandoned tree....and go press some cider! Fun and good for you in so many ways.

So on Sunday after I went to see the community apple pressing, it was so nice and sunny and even though I shoulda-woulda-coulda been working in my own overgrown garden, I just had to stop in at the Community Gardens on my way home. The garden is looking beautiful and very productive....and so nice to see and feel the love and care that folks are contributing to make it such a lovely environment to grow food and flowers....


Well, gotta get going...I'm off to get ready for our Thanksgiving feast! Happy Thanksgiving!!

apples!

Baskets full of apples are really just as decorative as flower bouquets...and maybe even more satisfying to admire at this time of year....these are "Spartans" and are so crispy and juicy right now.

'tis the season for apples and tree planting too...and there's nothing like a tree full of fruit and baskets full of it to capture my imagination and inspire me to plant another fruit tree....visions of dried apple rings, canned pie fillings, apple sauce, cider for the winter time....

A little bee in spring helping to pollinate the apple blossoms so we can have delicious apples in September and October.

The first apples we have every year come from this tree...unfortunately, I don't know the variety but they're delicious!...and when the tree blooms in the spring, it's just so beautiful.



So awesome to experience how those lovely little blooms turn into these beautiful big fruit in just a few short months...this was a delicious afternoon snack while I worked in the garden the other day.
I think perhaps I'll plant a couple pear trees next week.

the apple trees

The apple trees are happy now. Dave came over to prune them a few days ago. He's a master pruner extraordinaire! He loves the trees and does such a good job. They're beginning to come alive with green now....