Sunday, October 24, 2010

Apple Harvest 2010

In late September we picked apples for eating and storage: Liberty and Prima mostly. We got about 3 bushels. The Shiawassee, Winesap, and RI Greenings also were loaded with apples, while the Golden Russet and Baldwin trees had a modest crop. Some of the unknown and volunteer trees had a good crop also. We looked forward to the possibility of a good harvest. Normally we would do this around October 12 but this year I spent most of the first couple of weeks of October getting my paper written and ready for presentation at the American Folklore Society conference in Nashville, on October 14th. But on the 15th while we were still away at the conference, this part of Maine experienced a nor'easter, with winds to 60 mph, which among other things blew most of the apples down, whereupon the white-tailed deer feasted on them. My conference paper was on the subjects of biomimicry (following Nature) and Nature's economy, a concept that goes back to Enlightenment naturalists such as Gilbert White. Nature's economy refers to Nature's efficient care of her household, the Earth and its inhabitants. While I was speaking at the conference about Nature's economy, it was in operation at home, in that blowdown and the deer feast. But we'd already harvested plenty for eating and storage, and in this way Nature took care of us and the deer, too.