Apple Report--2012

This was an unusual year for apples, and the result was no fall harvest or cider-making. In September the trees did have some apples on them, but not as much as usual. Somehow by early October most of them were off the trees, which looked about as they normally do a month or so later, the leaves drying up and falling. There had not been a frost or freeze, and yet the year was a month ahead of itself in tree behavior. Besides, ravenous whitetail deer and a few porcupines took care of the remaining fruit and by Columbus Day, the usual time for harvest, the trees were almost bare.