"APPLES"

ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN---APPLE TIME!

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It's that time of year again---apple time! If you've been

feeling a little under the weather--a little out of sorts--

maybe what you may need is "an apple a day " for

awhile. Tomatoes are history and now you need 

another great source of vitamins.

Listen to this---Apples, sources of:

Vitamin C

Vitamin B--6, pyridoxine

Vitamin B--2, riboflavin

Thiamine

ATP

(AND who knows what else?)

With apples you get few calories, no fat, no sodium, and

there is no cholesterol! (Why, this is better than French 

fries!) And eating one is like eating a rose---yes they are

from the rose family! Why, this is great! I always kinda 

thought they were just---gifts for the teacher!

Experts tell us that there are 2500 species of apples

grown in the USA.

It is time to think about apples, talk about them, and

go out and get some and store them for Christmas

and next spring!

"They" say, and it is true, if you buy a whole sack or

box of apples, wrap each apple individually in a piece

of old newspaper, or maybe a small ziplock bag, and

if you store them in a very cold place---like the crispers

in your fridge, they will last until April. We have done it.

If they get mellow, make a pie.(Note: ziplocks and I

don't get along.)

I believe the professional growers, in order to have 

viable, crispy products all the way into the next

summer, store them at near freezing---33 degrees.

Do you have any neat "apple memories?" We have lived 

in New Mexico, (our second time around) for 52 years. Our 

memories of apple shopping began when we came

back to the state from a sojourn in Texas, my native 

state.

One fall, early in the sixties, while dove hunting south

of Belen, a rainstorm, dark and threatening was building

over Ladron Mountain. My hunting buddy and I headed for
town, and passed a neat little warehouse by the side of an
apple orchard.

You could see apples through the door and apples all

around in baskets. My friend and I  stopped and 

bought two sacks. It was an early crop. They were good.

There was a big orchard south of the Los Lunas prison

complex that used to sell all its apples to Safeway. Twice

I talked them out of a box. I believe they were Delicious

apples--big ones-- and more than any other apple I have 

ever eaten, when you bit into one of those, they actually

dripped, they were so juicy!

I had a job that required extensive travel and I bought 

apples at a number of places: one time in the mountains

near Ruidoso; another time east of Farmington from a 

refrigerated warehouse. One time in the fertile valley 

near Ft. Sumner...Farmer's Market in Albuquerque always

has good ones, and it's not necessary to travel...but then

part of the neatness of the whole experience is visiting an

actual orchard and seeing them grow on the trees!

    

What brand of apples to buy? It seems that Granny Smiths

are listed for many recipes. Winesaps are favored for

cooking. Through many of the earlier years we just always

bought Delicious apples. I have found that Galas and Fujis

are often good and crispy.

Someone told my wife to always buy "Honey Crisps" if

you want the juiciest, tartest apples. This someone was 

right! They are about the best I've eaten, though they

may run you nearly a dollar for a big one. 

No apple story out of New Mexico would be complete

without going into some detail about one of the most

famous apple orchards in the southwest. That orchard

was "Dixon Apples," founded in 1944, by Fred and 

Fay Dixon. 

The way I interpret the story is that an old timer named

James Young owned a dude ranch, about thirty miles

north of Albuquerque, 19,000 acres, including a canyon,

near Cochiti Lake, in the Jemez Mountains. The name 

of his ranch was Rancho de Canada. In 1944 Fred and

Faye Dixon came to manage the ranch and it became an

apple orchard. Apparently they later leased it from Jim.

The first apples we bought from this place were called

"OLD JIM YOUNG'S CHAMPAGNE" apples. This was 

circa 1962. We drove out there and had to go about

eight or nine miles off the paving, on a good 

well-traveled gravel road. There were lines of cars on 

a weekend. The apples were golden, looking like they 

were filled with sweet-tasting nectar, or champagne, as 

they were billed. We put a box under my parent's tree 

that year. They wanted them every Christmas after that!

Over the years, the "Old Jim Young" was dropped and they

became DIXON ORCHARD apples. We had a friend 

who went every year in October to get apples there, and

 she'd call and say: "How many pounds do you want?"

She's gone now, to a Greater Ochard above, where 

maybe there are apples for the picking, year-round.

The orchard there in Rancho de Canada may be gone

too, or at least recuperating, for it has fallen on hard

times--first the Conchas Fire of June 26, 2011 damaged

the area and left much harmful debris and ashes to wash 

into the orchard, and the next year a severe flood did

further damage. I've read that the descendants of the 

Dixon's  have moved their operation to Wisconsin. 

It's apple season again and the above story just goes

to show that everything we have on this earth comes

with work, effort, sacrifice, and a price. Even miraculous

APPLES!

My dad loved growing things, He was a farm boy. In 

Clcvis, in his backyard, he had four or five apple trees.

He even grafted golden apples onto red apple trees.

Not many people know this, but if you don't spray for

worms on your apple trees--the right time, the right spray,

the right way, applying to every part of the tree, repeating  

if necessary---worms will ruin your apples later on. Count

on it.

Dad was out there, in the backyard; he was in poor health,

wrapped like a space walker--against the poison 

spray--doing his apples every April! he always had great 

apples and put them up in Mason jars.

So it's apple time--it's autumn-- let's enjoy them and don't 

forget a warm glass of apple juice and maybe a little

apple butter on your peanut butter and toast.

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MIL'S PLACE
10-29-30