Longvue Acres
Garden Club Apple Tasting at Soergel Orchards
September
23, 2014
Program: Bill Goff arranged an apple
tasting and tour at Soergel’s Orchard.
The evening was pleasantly crisp with lovely sunset. All present enjoyed
the orchard tour with Randy Soergel
talking about apples, their growth, their season (July-end of October), tree
support, pests, etc. Randy let Dylan
Noker, Jenna’s son, drive the enormous tractor (he was thrilled as
anyone, especially under 16, would be). We saw other crops that Soergel grows
during the year, e.g., strawberries, raspberries, squash, pumpkins.
The
tour continued through the washing and sizing room of the packaging building,
then the refrigerator room, and onto tasting. Varieties tasted were, Cortland,
Paula Red, McIntosh, Jonathan, Honey Crisp, and a few others. Randy talked of
the color inside and out, peel, sweetness, crispness, uses, and we picked our
favorites as we compared tastes. Each
of us took home an apple.
Take home points:
·
Outer
3 ft of the tree grows the fruit, not the trunk
·
Grafted
dwarf trees can still become tall, takes them a lot longer as their roots are smaller
and they may need staking to keep upright
·
Don’t
handle a frozen apple, let thaw first. Below 28 deg apples freeze
·
Keep
them in cool spot rather than in dehumidifying refrigerator to prevent moisture
loss
·
Mix
varieties together for complex sauce and cider flavors, keep to one variety for
pie because of cooking time
·
An
excellent, easy dessert—slice apples and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Add
spices and sugar according to personal preference
·
Apple
skin facing the sun is darker color, try at home on the window sill
·
Have
young people, who aren’t sure what direction to pursue, contact him. He is an
avid fan of horticulture and its opportunities.
Next meeting: October 28, 2014, “Fall
Clean Up; Savoring the Last of the Season” by Martha Swiss.
No comments:
Post a Comment