All about Fruit Show

Pictures from the All about Fruit Show, where I ordered my 12 apple trees.

This huge series of tables are all different varieties of apples arranged from A to Z. One of the things about the All about Fruit Show I had forgotten from last year is that it was very difficult for me to actually get someone to cut an apple slice for me. Last year I had a list of a lot of apples to taste and could I get someone to follow me down the alphabet while I tasted? No. Other people had volunteers that stuck with them the whole way, but I would politely ask and they would cut me a slice and wander off to a dithering couple who wanted to taste the Gala and the Macintosh for god's sake. What gives? It was the same deal this year. I would stand in front of my apple and wait. And wait. And wait. I think next year I will volunteer to give slices to people. Maybe they just need more volunteers.

I had three apples I needed to taste and was happy to see Lubsk Queen.

Here I am with my spreadsheet of apples. While I was waiting to taste my last three apples, three people asked me where I got my list. I told them that I had come with a list last year and narrowed down to this. "Oh" they would say in a disappointed tone and walk off. But it gave me the idea that perhaps a few members of the Home Orchard Society could make a list of their favorites. I think the vast quantity of choices is overwhelming.

Filling out the order form for my trees. The volunteer there steered me toward M9 rootstock.

I love that the Home Orchard Society is about saving people money. Here you can make your own Insecticidal Soap with a Fels-Naptha bar. Which you have in your home, right? Because it really is the best stain remover under the sun.

There are also directions to make an Earwig Condo so the earwigs can eat your aphids.

Here on the pear tables is an article about the Luelling Pears, a listing of the varieties of pear trees a pioneer brought on the Oregon Trail.

The grape table smelled heavenly. I would love to grow grapes but am lacking in sun.

A book I need to read.

And the winners are:

I have completed my apple research, just in time to attend the Home Orchard Society's All About Fruit Show. I needed to have the research done before the show because at the show I will place my order for my trees. The Home Orchard Society will graft my trees and I can pick them up in March at their next big event. The great thing about this is that the trees are $12.00 each rather than the $22-$24.00 price I will pay if I buy them from the nurseries. The other plus is that the Home Orchard Society has access to more varieties and so I can get varieties that aren't for sale.

So! Here are the twelve future apple varieties for my Belgian Fence:

Devonshire Quarrenden
Lubsk Queen
Grimes Golden
Erun Baur (Erwin Baur)
Gravenstein
Cox Queen (Queen Cox)
Ashmead's Kernal
Red Belle d.Boskoop
Ortley
Fiesta (Red Pippin)
Honeycrisp
Karmijun de Sonna Ville

My apple choosing philosophy was this:
*I wanted to grow apples that I can't find in the store. I am often confused by people who plant Gala Apples. You can go to any store and buy them for cheap year round, why not grow something very delicious you can't buy? The exception to this rule was Honeycrisp, because I really love those apples and they cost an arm and a leg. Also Gravenstein which are fairly available in my area, but which I never travel to go and get.
*I wanted apples that ripened in August so I could make sauce before school started and then apples that ripened in October, after all the "start of school" brouhaha has settled. I do not want very many apples that will ripen in September.
*I wanted a lot of good "keepers"

Last year I went to the All About Fruit show and tasted a lot of these apples. If you are thinking about planting apples (or pears, grapes, or Kiwi) and live in the Portland area, the annual All About Fruit Show is a must. Go find a delicious variety you can't buy in the store.

Potatoes!

I dug the last of them today. Here are three specimens weighing over a pound each. I also have a lot of tiny potatoes which will make very good roasted potatoes.

Birthday Breakfast at Marcos

Matt, Myself and the collective BroMAunts (Brother, Mother, Aunts) gathered at Marco's for a delicious birthday breakfast. We were celebrating Chris' birthday (September 26) and Aunt Carol's birthday (October 13)

Due to excellent traffic, Matt and I arrived 30 minutes early and had time to contemplate the umbrellas on the ceiling and two very good chai lattes.I ordered Quiche Lorraine and was delighted with my meal.

We ate, we opened presents we departed. The only problem was that there was no cake, or other birthday dessert.

Restaurant Bleu

We took another trip to Restaurant Bleu. This time, I found it okay but not fabulous. For example, my chocolate mousse was very delicious, but the cookie crust it was sitting in was hard and tasteless and kept shooting into my lap each time I tried to cut off a piece. Matt got the banana thing for dessert which he enjoyed.

Probably the most memorable thing about this trip was after dinner. I was waiting for Matt to use the bathroom and eavesdropping on a conversation a dinner patron was having with the waiter while she was waiting for her companion in the bathroom. They were chatting about their lives when she made an abrupt turn and asked if the waiter went to church, because she was a preacher and needed to do her job. He politely said he did when he was younger, but that there was no draw there. He then attempted to switch the subject by discussing his hometown of Dallas and the traffic when she interrupted him, put her hands on his head and said the following, "Dear Lord, please bless this man and his cooking endeavors and please lead him back to the one true church so he can find Jesus and his way, in the name of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

Her husband emerged from the restroom, they departed, and the waiter and I just stared at each other for a beat, then made non-religious conversation. Matt arrived and we went on a walk to Jameson Square, most of which was devoted to how incredibly inappropriate it is to pray over people who haven't really asked you to.

That didn't take long.

August 1 of this year, Fred Meyer stopped using plastic shopping bags at all of its Portland-area grocery stores. I'm generally in favor of this, as I find plastic shopping bags to be a scourge on this world in a way that paper shopping bags are not. However, I have had to make adjustments. We use the shopping bags for trash can liners and now we are completely out, as evidenced by the empty Ikea bag holder on the left. Also, since the garden has been producing a lot of zucchini, I haven't been buying vegetables at the store which means we are out of the plastic produce bags, which usually live in the Ikea bag holder on the right. The plastic produce bags also work as trash can liners, but don't have those handy handles to tie together.

Even the plastic bags that the newspapers usually arrive in are lacking. Over the summer, they've begun to go "old school" and my newspapers arrive folded with a rubber band securing them. Only on damp days do they come in a bag. Here you also see my ingenious low-cost drying method: it's a dowel propped between my cookbooks. In the morning, I hang the wet newspaper bag on the dowel and in the evening it is dry and I shove it in the Ikea bag holder. These bags I take to school for the teachers to use to as "poo bags" as Julie calls them. During Morning Movement in the park blocks, the teachers generally have to clean up after other people's dogs before the children can do their morning movement activity, which is lovely, and just one of the many unsung parts of being a teacher.
So I've bought trash bags for the first time in decades. I erred in my purchase as these trash bags are scented and the smell makes me ill. The question is now, what will I put in my Ikea bag holders?

Warrior Dash

We have Facebook to thank for the Warrior Dash. Ads appeared on Matt's page and he clicked for more information and then he signed up.

Getting in took a very long time. We had time to take pictures of one of the things Matt would run over.

Matt in his warrior gear.

Eventually, time crept by and Matt just left me waiting to park and ran to get his packet. I parked and walked up to the start line. Before I got there, I saw the "showers" where warriors could wash the mud off.

And I started seeing a lot of people covered in mud.

Many people were wearing "warrior" costumes, which for many seemed to translate to "caveman." When I think warriors, I don't think caveman, but now I know that many people do.

A view of the fire that warriors lept over.

While I was scoping out where best to stand to take a photo, I ran into one of the parents from school. She is on the right. She had a great time.

It took four passes back and forth at the start line before I found Matt. I checked with him to see if he would want his picture taken leaping over fire or crawling through mud. He voted for fire.

After I bid him farewell, I wandered over to sit for a bit and captured these two warriors.

Nothing like catching up on some non-fiction while someone else is running three miles while leaping obstacles.

I was amused that the logs were Duraflame logs. Here is where I stood and took about 20 practice photos so I could take a good one when Matt lept over the fire. He appeared much sooner than I thought he would and I took a fabulous picture. I did so with his camera, so you have to go on Facebook to see it.

I ran to the final part of the race and got another fabulous picture of him crawling under barbed wire and also one of him sliding through the mud. Also look to Facebook to see those pictures. After he was done I took this picture of him.

It turns out that when your boyfriend is covered in mud, you can't walk as closely to him as you normally would or you get mud on you.

Matt lost his number on the way, and had to find out what it was so he could get the clothes he checked.

What does a warrior do after the dash? He gets out of the clothes before he goes home.

What does he wear home if he forgot to bring more clothes?

He wears his girlfriend's sweatshirt and nothing else.

While waiting to exit the parking lot (nearly as long a process as entering the parking lot) I waited for my mud to dry before flicking it all off.

We had a lot of time to discuss how awesome the warrior dash was.

What say you?

What does a warrior eat, post dash? A big burger and fries.