Something strange is happening in my back yard. In a summer with droughts that rival the Dust Bowl and a prolonged heat wave harsher than any in recent memory, the apple tree right outside my kitchen door is flourishing like never before. That is to say, it's producing a lot of fruit.
We've only lived here for three summers and this is the first that any apples of note have grown on the tree. And my, how they are growing. They are so abundant that the limbs hang low and i have had to pick some that are not ripe just to lighten the load. What could possibly explain such a crop in a year that most other produce is suffering?
And, any ideas for what to do with a giant (50-gallon) surplus of apples? We've made some applesauce out of these tart green cooking apples, we've given away as many as we can to family and friends and Craigslist strangers, but we are at a loss for how to accommodate their sheer numbers!
Related: Pick Your Own Apples: For Suckers?
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make hard cider
If you have a cellar, can you just store many away for winter?
Also: cider!! !!!! (more exclamation points!)
Donate them to a food pantry or to someone providing meals to the disabled like Meals on Wheels. Or give them away on Freecycle.
Also, look to see if you have a branch of Food Forward in your neighborhood. They will come do the picking for you and then donate them to a partner pantry.
Apple pie filling can be preserved easily by freezing or canning, as can apple cider.
Certain areas of the west had a cold winter and mild spring without freezing temps during the blooming period that allowed the fruit trees to produce bumper crops. The opposite was true for the upper midwest and northeast where many fruit crops were destroyed this spring. We had a record crop from our young pie cherry tree and many of the cherry and apple trees around town are producing huge crops.
If you know of any local homebrew shops, ask around and see if they have a juice press. One of our local shops has a large hydraulic press and they let us use if for a small fee. It makes quick work of large quantities of the less-than-pretty apples.
We search out apples in the fall so we feel like we're drowning in them. Then we make applesauce (with the skins) and freeze it in large glass jars. Every week or so in the winter and spring, we take one out, eat it with a bit of maple syrup and cinnamon, put it in oatmeal or use it in baking. Or slice them with a handy dandy corer/slicer and freeze in bags for winter apple (and berry or rhubarb) crisp.
where do you live? i'll take some! :)
I make a ton of applesauce every fall and freeze it in quart containers--a real treat all winter and spring.
I wish this was a problem I had. my kids love applesauce.
I have been told that fruit bearing plants/trees will produce more fruit when stressed. I also agree with several other people, make dry apple cider! That is what I am doing with most of my apples this year. There is a place where I live that will press all my apples for $25 and then the local u-brew will take my juice and make cider :)
What about some homemade pectin?
Yeah, the trees "think" they're dying....so they're sending out progeny to survive them.
Apple jelly, apple cake, apple tart/tarte tatin, apple crisp, throw 'em in salad, spice them and can them, use a dehydrator and dry several batches, apple dumplings, apple fritters, apple dutch baby.....
Did you know you can assemble apple pies, baked or not, and they can be frozen whole for fall/thanksgiving?
Can you sell or give away at a farmer's market or fair?
The same thing is happening to my mom's starfruit tree, although she lives in Miami and it's been raining all July. Every single branch is covered with the fruits, even the branches that don't get much sunlight.However, her mango tree only gave out mangos in the parts the sun hit the most.
You could make pectin: http://portlandpreserve.com/HomemadePectinStock.pdf
I've used it successfully for sour cherry jam and other preserves. It stores very well in the freezer.
yes, make hard cider, if they're very tart it's the best use. You could also make some big batches of apple jelly (possibly flavored with apple brandy, yum yum). And if you have a cellar you can pretty much keep apples for several months.
You may want to prune out some of the unripe apples anyway just to make sure the other ones get bigger and sweeter.
Sounds like your apple tree is in a biennial yield. Normally apples are thinned to the primo or king fruit, the largest or best looking apple in the cluster. Also, apple trees benefit from late winter/early spring pruning. Lack of thinning or improper pruning can send your tree into biennial yield where it fruits every other year. Good apple pruning to read up on how to care for your apple tree!
We have apples on our tree, most still small We watched our Malamute jump up (and the breed are pullers, not jumpers!), grab a low branch and eat the small apples that fell off, She spent a couple of years thinking the apples were toys - somehow she found out those were the same things that she was eating cut up.