The orchard and its fruit

Apples and the other fruit trees, planted, grafted, kept and pressed.

11 documents · 2 chapters · 6 dishes · 45 rows

In the chapters

Chapter 7 The Orchard and the Wild
The Story: The meadow orchard
At the Bench: 1. Scions in January
Chapter 12 Cold and Dark
Numbers to Carry: Apples away from potatoes
Chapter 15 Drink
The Story: The apple on the Havel

Documents 11

On the Menu

Sauerkraut braised with apples Duck with apples, Martinsgans Apple strudel Baked apples Distilled spirits and fruit schnapps Vinegar and fruit vinegar

In the log 45

32 confirmed
6 amended
1 partly confirmed
6 unresolved
8 marked for safety

W4 confirmed Safety Bare copper plus acid (vinegar, wine, tomato, apple, whey) gives verdigris, an emetic; every pan that meets acid is tinned
G3 amended Safety Humanure compost rests a full year after the hot phase and goes only under fruit trees and grain, never under anything eaten raw
O10 confirmed Safety Pear on quince: prunasin → HCN at union kills join; unknown wild roots may do the same
O11 unresolved Safety Grafting knife cuts toward the thumb; cut away from the body
C1 amended Safety Water bath: 10 min for jams and pickles in half-litre jars; 20 to 25 min for whole fruit and acidified tomatoes in litre jars; 5 min more per 300 m altitude; tomatoes …
D1 amended Safety A pot still does not separate methanol from ethanol; drinking heads can blind or kill; fruit high in pectin (apple, plum, pear) makes more methanol than grain
D5 amended Safety Copper still: plumbing grade (Cu-DHP) not wire (Cu-ETP); joints riveted or silver-soldered, never lead solder; cut off every old solder joint; scrub black film after …
T4 amended Safety Lead glaze melts at pit temperatures (700–800 °C) and leaches into acid food (vinegar, wine, kraut, fruit); Devonshire colic (cider), saturnism; unknown or chipped …
I33 confirmed Curie point 770 °C, magnet lets go whatever the carbon; harden a shade above, bright cherry red
K42 confirmed Handle: ash, beech or plum slabs, pinned with brass or mild rod, hide glue or epoxy
W34 confirmed Species: apple, pear, cherry (antimicrobial, knife finish); birch the Scandinavian staple; sycamore the English treen wood (no taste); ash for handles; beech T/R 2.15 …
W54 confirmed Shrinkage by species: 143 gives oak T 7.5 to 9.0 / R 4.0 to 4.5, sycamore 8.0 to 8.5 / 3.0 to 3.5, linden 8.8 to 9.2 / 5.2 to 5.5; 147 gives oak 8.6 / 4.0, sycamore 9.9 …
F62 confirmed Lift at 50 to 70 % tops down (134: 70 %), field-dry 48 to 72 h, cure 14 to 21 days (134: 10 to 14) at 24 to 27 °C max 32, 60 to 70 % RH never over 75, necks 3 to 4 cm; …
O13 confirmed Standard on wild/seedling root: first fruit ~8–10 yr ("up to a decade"), life 80–120 yr, carbon peak at 18 yr; dwarf orchards replanted every 15–25 yr
O14 confirmed Prussian couples had to plant fruit trees before marrying; roadside orchards (Chausseeobst)
O15 confirmed Apple gametophytic self-incompatibility; seedlings never true; Tian Shan / Malus sieversii; Silk Road
O16 confirmed Cato on grafting (De agri cultura, ~160 BC); monasteries
O18 confirmed M9 East Malling 1910s, most planted, one third size, fruits yr 2–3, permanent support; cavitation on sand; Gala/Elstar/Rubinette fail without fertigation
O19 confirmed Interstem 15–30 cm M9/M27 between MM106/MM111/Antonovka and scion
O20 confirmed Malus sylvestris: smooth leaf underside, small sour fruit, sometimes thorny; ~30 % hybrids in N. Britain, ID fails 36 %
O22 confirmed Apple pips need 2–3 months cold stratification; graftable at pencil thickness in a year
O23 confirmed Pear on Pyrus pyraster (dry sand); cherry on P. avium or P. mahaleb (dry lime); plum on P. cerasifera or P. spinosa (suckers)
O25 confirmed Scion collection Dec–Feb, pencil-thick one-year wood, store 1–4 °C damp; graft late Mar–Apr at bud swell with dormant scion
O26 confirmed Whip-and-tongue cuts (3–4 cm, tongue one third down), cleft with two wedge scions, chip bud in late summer; tape and wax
O27 unresolved Union a hand above soil; below = scion roots; ~10 % more dwarfing per exposed inch; burr knots
O29 confirmed Streuobstwiese 8–10 m, Hochstamm trunk 1.8 m, hay/sheep; rarest landscape
O30 unresolved Half a hectare = 20–30 standards = a family's fruit
O31 confirmed Oeschberg: Swiss, early 20th c., leader, 3–4 scaffolds at 45°, fruit wood 80–150 cm, 10 years shaping, outward bud
O36 unresolved Cellar 2–4 °C, slatted shelves, Christmas to Easter; dried apple loses six sevenths
O38 unresolved Juice ~two thirds of fruit weight; Apfelwein dry on wild yeast keeps a year
A33 confirmed Family of four on sand: garden 1,000 m², rye 1,200 + seed, potatoes 150 + 550 for pig, lupin fifth of arable, orchard 0.25 ha, pasture 1.2, meadow 0.6, heifer 0.9, pig …
B38 confirmed German seam cuts and uses: Hals/Kamm goulash and Kochfleisch; Bug: Schaufelstück, Falsches Filet, dicker Bug (Sauerbraten); Hochrippe roast; Querrippe and Brust …
B54 confirmed Fat: cow 30–40 kg fat and 40 kg bone; pig 12 kg fat and 10 kg bone; render within 12 h or hold ≤7 °C (Reg 853/2004); suet 86–90 % lipid, trim 62–76 %; dry rendering …
E57 confirmed Wood: alder (Baltic/Havel), beech, fruitwood; never pine, spruce, fir; barrel smoker layout; juniper twig at the end as Spreewald signature
C10 confirmed Storage temperatures: potato 4 °C, apple 1 to 3 °C, cabbage near 0 °C; cellar 0 to 4 °C at 80 to 95 % RH
C12 confirmed Per head per year about 90 kg bread and grain, 70 kg potatoes, 100 kg vegetables, 65 kg fruit (126 gives 93, 71.7, 98.6, 66.5); wheat packs to nearly 800 kg/m³ (772)
C16 amended Ethylene from apples makes potatoes sprout; apples on a shelf above the potato bin lose the potatoes by February
C9 confirmed An apple at 2 °C breathes at a fifth of the rate of one at 20 °C
D26 confirmed Wild yeasts on fruit skin give up at about 5 % alcohol; true yeast present in tiny numbers takes over; vinegar bacteria wait for air
D27 partly confirmed Werder: island town on the Havel, two centuries of fruit for Berlin, sand over clay, south slopes, the Baumblütenfest, fruit by barge and night soil back to the orchards
D29 confirmed Press: 60 to 70 l juice per 100 kg milled apples; Brandenburg wedge presses driven with mallets
D31 confirmed Blend: half sweet, a fifth sharp, the rest bitter; sweat apples a week
D42 unresolved Heads smell of nail varnish and burn cold; tails smell of wet cardboard or wet dog; the heart of the fruit; cut by nose
T23 confirmed Tableware woods: birch, sycamore, maple, lime, alder, cherry, pear (diffuse-porous) good; oak, ash, elm (ring-porous) hold food; yew and laburnum toxic; walnut juglone
T24 confirmed Shrinkage: tangential 6–10 %, radial 2–5 %, T/R ratio ~2 (walnut 1.41, cherry 1.91, hard maple 2.06, red oak 2.15); quartersawn/radial blank for a flat plate; dry 4–6 …