Three Twigs in Their Pots

Twigs, even large ones do not hold much promise.  A columnar apple tree, when it's only a couple of years old, is really nothing more than a large twig.  Surprise, surprise.

Scarlet Sentinel in April

Our three apple tree "twigs" have lived with us for a year and a half.  Pretty flowers graced them in the spring, but they're still babies, and I expected nothing more from them.

Northpole, which we planted in the southern position, looked naked all summer until I paused at look at its base.  Three giant apples snuggled together with ruddy green cheeks under the large leaves.  Golden Sentinel at the far north was covered with pretty little green apples.  I did not thin them.  Some were stolen by squirrels, some fell to the ground and whatever I could collect were fed to the chickens.  The girls pecked them enthusiastically.

Making my mouth water even now.

Then Things I get to do today said to pick the funny apples on the middle tree, the Scarlet Sentinels. Most of the fruit had little black dots scattered about on the skin, reminding me of worms.  A knife split one crisply apart revealing a clean, bugless interior. Also on the "Things" list: do a taste test. The best of the bunch, the Scarlets, are sweet, tart, crisp.  So glad the trees are potted so that when we move, these "twigs" can go with us.