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- Ate at Nueva Leone, which is yummy cheap Mexican food, and highly approved by John's mum.
- Went to the Field Museum, where I saw the Mythical Creatures exhibit and the George Washington Carver exhibit. In that latter, they have a piece of netted embroidery mislabeled as 'crochet'. Arghhh! And this from a major research museum with a textile department. Sigh. Whatever. The rest of the visit to the museum was great. :->
- Ate dinner at Barcelona Tapas/Tapas Barcelona in Evanston, with my aunt-in-law MJ added to the pre-existing party of five.
- Went back to MJ's to fix her computer, examine her sewing machine, and, as it turned out, watch most of an episode of 'ShakespeaRe-Told,' a nifty BBC series that I think I need to own.
- Planted my mailorder fruit trees yesterday morning before getting Out and About.
- Saw "Under the Same Moon" up at Old Orchard in our party-of-six. OMG good movie. Funnier than I expected, and less sad; I was thinking I'd come out dripping tears and wrist-slittingly depressed, but it was really uplifting, as well as emotionally intense. Highly recommended.
- Bought me a new cellphone ... because, aside from already considering replacing the one I had, it, um, took an unauthorised swim. So. The new one's black, sexy, and has nicer menu software than the old one. Win! :->
- Ate dinner at Addis Abeba -- first time I've had Ethiopian. It was yummy. The in-laws look at me funny when I said it was "Kind of like Middle-Eastern food, only the bread is different," but that's how my head files it. The bread WAS very different than anything else I've ever had, rather like edible thin sheets of foam rubber.
- Went back to MJ's for more computerfixing, and then home.
Brief footnote, in re the fruit trees: I mailordered apples (and an accidental cherry) from Trees of Antiquity. A highly recommended buying experience, if any of you are in the market for fruitbearing woody plants; they have a whole range of really neat, really old varieties, on modern dwarfing and semi-dwarfing rootstock.
And now I've blogged it so I don't forget to, whew.
Today's tasks: water all the trees, the strawberries, and the back lawn. Run the dishwasher at least once. Help John get all the sheets into the wash and back out and folded. Eat something. Practice my piano homework. Write up my concert report for class ...
Comments
Highly esteemed for baking, stewing and making cider, this is one of the best late sweet apples. Pale yellow skin with russet lines envelops firm, white, sweet fleshed medium to large apples. Bears reliably almost everywhere and is especially hardy.
Bloom: Late; USDA Zone: 4-9; Mature Size: Large; Ripens: Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Purple skin with white dots and crisp yellow flesh. Very juicy and rich in flavor, excellent quality. This is a great desert apple that stores well. Ripens very late-- usually October in most locations. Considered one of the best Limbertwigs.
Bloom: Midseason; USDA Zone: 5-10; Mature Size: Medium; Ripens: Very Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Oldest known English Apple. Tree vigorous. Fruit medium to nearly large, uniform, pale greenish, usually with one side blushed red. Flesh firm, fine grained, crisp. Dessert apple, mildly subacid and pleasantly aromatic. Well adapted to coastal districts of California, including Southern California.
Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 5-10; Mature Size: Large; Ripens: Very Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Excellent old American cider apple, a keeper and good for eating fresh. Large greenish, sometimes bronze tinged skin almost covered with yellowish-brown russet. Remarkable for it's amount of sugar. Firm, slightly coarse, fairly tender, yellowish-white flesh. Tree medium to large, a good cropper on rich soils. Displays resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.
Bloom: Late; USDA Zone: 5-9; Mature Size: Large; Ripens: Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), juice/hard cider
Large bright red apple with brilliant red flesh. Flavor is balanced between sweet and tart and sweetens if left on the tree longer. A vigorous growing tree, these apples ripen at the end of September in most locations. Makes great apple pies that resemble pies made from cherries. The most striking fall colors in our nursery!
Bloom: Midseason; USDA Zone: 5-9; Mature Size: Medium; Ripens: Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Tender, but firm, exceedingly juicy, yellow tinged flesh. Fresh cider flavor. Young, productive bearer and a reliable cropper. Flattish, red-striped yellow fruit. Hardy to -40 degrees F. Excellent keeper, very good quality apple for multiple uses. Shows some resistance to fireblight.
Bloom: Late; USDA Zone: 3-9; Mature Size: Medium; Ripens: Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
The ultimate cooking cherry, bright red, with yellow flesh and clear juice. Much more flavorful than canned fruit for fresh cherry pies and tarts. Flesh does not get mushy when processed. Disease resistant and easier to grow than sweet cherries. Self-fruitful.
USDA Zone: 4-9
I'm glad you asked; this way it's archived here in my lj. :-> Note: likely I won't get any fruit at all off any of these for a couple of years, yet.
Edited at 2008-04-20 15:48 (UTC)
I am suprized that you chose all "Ripens:Late"
If I were doing something like that, I would probably pick a combination like
CORTLAND (Geneva, New York 1915)
A McIntosh type with sweet vinous flavor, but not all of Mac's aromatics. Tart and tangy white crisp flesh; one of the best salad apples because it doesn't brown quickly. Hangs on the tree better than McIntosh, and more crisp in hot weather. Vigorous, long-lived tree is annually productive and starts bearing early.
Bloom: Midseason; USDA Zone: 3-9; Mature Size: Medium; Ripens: Mid season; Uses: Fresh eating/dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
GOLDEN NUGGET (Nova Scotia 1943)
Golden Russet x Cox's Orange Pippin. A small, conical yellowish apple streaked and blushed with tawny orange. Home gardeners treasure it for the exceptional, rich and sweet flavor, but commercial growers don't favor it due to smaller size. Excellent all purpose apple, makes delicious pies. Moderately vigorous with thin branches and many slender fruit spurs.
Bloom: Midseason; USDA Zone: 5-10; Mature Size: Medium; Ripens: Late; Uses: Fresh eating/dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
They both bloom "mid-season" (for polination) but one ripens mid season and the other ripens late. It also give me both a "red" and a "yellow" varieties
Edited at 2008-04-20 17:19 (UTC)
For your own yard: they always suggest getting at least 2 and preferably 3 that bloom in each part of the season, because most apples are vehemently NOT self-pollinating. Also, apple genetics are screwed up ...
My grouping also includes one self-pollinator (White Pearmain) that blooms through both seasons, so it can be a sperm-donor (ok, pollen-donor) to all the rest if necessary.
When these were ordered, I kinda freaked out... where are we going to put all seven of these trees? Having now seen, carried, planted, etc., them, I'd have considered more trees for more varieties, including cortland, pippin and a spy if available, but where would I put them? Unlike a certain co-worker, I do not have 3+ acres of land to play with. :(
Actually, having eaten it, it's kind of more like Nepalese food than middle-eastern (since middle-eastern is, to me, dominated by chickpea products -- not that ethiopian has none! -- and lemony flavors).
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