The last harvest yesterday. What you see on the ground there is only half the apples— the rest are in the compost Dalek, extensively eaten-on by the resident rat. Ruined for me. After peeling and core-ing those “Moonlights” up above, there was exactly five kilos to pot-up. We boiled them along with some sugar and cinnamon. We use a potato-masher to make the stuff more “saucy”, yet we wanted it to be on the border of a compôte—applesauce with a bit of a soft crunch. Gadzooks, the pantry shelves are full of that stuff and the jams and tom concentrate now. The freezer is full of our veg. Phew, that was an unusual season with meteorologically-based challenges. The apple processing turned into a sort of marathon on the days we processed the. It was fun, but I m glad it is finished. I like eating applesauce and this coming ear, I shall not have to pace myself. Tomorrow our rains ought to be over for at least a day. We have the tom vines to bring to the municipal collection containers, then on to the lottie for some winterising. Addendum: Our water boiler finally gave up the ghost after a bit more than twenty years service. We will pick up an inexpensive new model tomorrow.
I'm sorry to hear about the rat damage Sjoerd. They can be so destructive. I had an interesting conversation with my kids from Alberta this summer about rats. And there was recently an article in my Small Farm Canada magazine that I subscribe to. Where I live we only have Wood rats, or Pack Rats they are called. They are the only native rat to Canada. The rats that you struggle with are an invasive species here. Apparently they are responsible for an over 20 % crop loss total in Canada every year. My kids raised this point as Alberta is the only province in Canada considered "rat free", They have a "rat squad" that is provincially funded to find and hunt down any rat that is reported, as well as strict adherences about imports etc. They are landlocked, so I assume that makes it much easier. The kids "rat squad" description sounded so funny at the time, but then when I read the article about the extreme crop damage the rats can cause....it made me think twice about teasing about it. I'm happy you were able to salvage enough apples for your sauce making. It is a favourite of mine to enjoy over the winter as well. It sounds like even with your extreme weather, your harvest was bountiful and you will have happy tummies this winter season. Well done!
Thanks so much, Mel. The Rattus norvegicus here are very reddish. My face was as red as they are when I saw the extent of the damage. So angry. Their damage was too extensive this time. Your rat squad is what we need here I think.
Sjoerd, I'm glad you got enough apples for some delicious reminders of summer! I too am collecting the late apples. There were a lot of Jonagold this year - a truly delicious apple. It bears every other year. Lots of this - and - that apples, too. A lot will go into the compost. Some because of sunburn, birds, worms, and just bad luck. Im happy for what was harvested. I have a "Moonlight" tree too, by a different name. Very tasty apple, nice big size, nice balance of sweet and tart.
Sjoerd, I wonder if you could construct some kind of physical barrier? A large sheet-metal cone surrounding the lower branches? How high can rats jump? And you can get quite a bit of wind, right? Hmmm. Maybe not do-able
