Our little heirloom apple tree

Last fall, after watching Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire I decided it was time to add an heirloom apple tree to the mix.  So with some twitter followers goading me on, I found an orchard, made some inquiries and had placed our order by the time the documentary moved on from apples to marijuana. 

If you haven't seen this documentary, please do (you can stream it from PBS here) and if you have, PBS also has some great extra videos on their site from Michael Pollan.  He talks about heirloom apples and really sums up my personal philosophy quite nicely by describing them as "The extravagance of nature that really made life worth living".  Warning, these links will make you hunt down and plant an heirloom apple tree.

With some very helpful guidance from the folks at Siloam Orchards we decided on a Spitzenburg.  Its a fairly disease resistant heirloom apple from New York, that makes both a good eating and cider apple and really, if it was good enough for Monticellio, its good enough for us. 

Well the call finally came last week; spring is here and so was our 1 year old "whip", basically a branch with roots and we needed to come and pick it up.  

So we spent what should have been a lovely day driving around gorgeous Ontario Farm Land looking for Siloam Orchards with a very grumpy toddler. We barely made it in time for their 3pm close, but had a great visit once we arrived.  Rebecca ran through the orchards and poked things with sticks and I bought pies. We'll be back for apple picking in the fall.

Hey little apple blossom...

what seems to be the problem? 

picking clover?

She's going to work on a tractor now.  Becca is wearing her new tree planting skirt for the occasion; A gift from the fabulous Sarah over at Bohdi Handmade on Etsy.  I think I want everything from her perfect little shop.

:::Sigh::: Ryan says no more fruit crates are coming into this house.

Not grumpy now that she's out of that terrible car seat.

Never getting back in that car seat unless you give me apple chips.

We also saw a brand new calf, all wobbly and proving that all is right in the world.

We got home just in time to plant our little Spitzenburg and all took a turn watering it.

All in all, it's basically a very good day if you have really dirty feet by the end of it.

Please take a minute to click through some of the links as there are some very interesting things out there on the internet.  Apple Photo Credit: Oysters4me under flickr creative commons licence.