[Sca-cooks] Fw: Request from Akim

[Stefan li Rous]

I'm reposting for Baron Akim:
> In addition, I have no idea which apple or fruit tree I would want.
For apples, it rather depends on whether you would want an eating 
apple, a
dessert apple, a cooking apple or a cider apple.  I assume many on 
SCA-Cooks
would want mainly cooking apples.  These are generally large, tough 
skinnned,
and hard fleshed but turn into mush when cooked.  Several of the period
trees I have just located are primarily for cooking including the
costard apple (thought to have been extinct) recently found and grafted.
This was the main apple variety for early period cooking in Britain and
France.
Heaven only knows what it tastes like, but that's what we want to find 
out
isn't it?
For eating, there are several likely candidates and for dessert apples,
the Blanc d' Hiver and Api are still very popular.  I doubt that I will 
have
many takers for peaches; there are very few sources located for period 
varieties
and on avearge here in Tennessee, you get fruit only about 1 out of 4 
seasons.
Plums are rather prolific though they don't keep well.  That brings up 
another
point.  "Delicious" apples look great but have a skin that waxes like
fiberglas.
This beautiful skin can disquise a meally fleshed, nasty flavour.  Like 
tomatos,
traditional commercial apples sacrificed flavour and aroma for shipping
indesructability and long shelf life.  Period apples are not going to 
be perfect,
uniform or particularly long keeping, but they have a better chance of
tasting good
or filling the room with the scent of fresh apples.  Fresh!  That's
critical here. Commercial apples can be in storage for close to a year.

> What is the number of fruit that would likely be obtained from a 
> single tree?
Most of what I am getting so far are semi-dwarfs, but I will be getting
semi-standards
on most of my future trees.  On the 4th year tree (I hope to plant two 
year
trees
whenever possible), there should be a small fruit harvest (5-10 apples).
The 5 year
trees should produce 1/2 to 2 bushels depending on the apple size.  From
there, the
yields should increase by 1 to 3 bushels per year until the tree reaches
its mature
size and produces 15 to 20 bushels per year for the next 20 years or so.
Then production
begins to turn downward.  That is for apples.  Pears and quinces should 
be
similar in yields; plums maybe 25% to 50% less yield.  Medlars, I have 
no clue
as there is so little current data on them.  They are a very small 
tree, so
I would never expect more than a bushel.  I will have to work out fees 
to be
fair, depending on time and money I have invested.  Remember, the 
average apple
at the grocery costs between $1 and $1.75 EACH.   These exotics would 
bring more
but the demand would be quite small.  Again the concept needs a lot more
discussion, but I think the basic concept is sound.
> I would prefer to go in with a group of people and get a mixture
> of fruits or apple varieties, understanding that the amount would vary
> from year to year. From an educational standpoint, I think being able
> to buy a mixture of fruits would also advance that goal more so than a
> homogenous or single tree approach.
80% of a mature tree is a lot of apples.  You will need to have figured 
out
how you will use (or distribute)them because they will arrive in a 
dumptruck
quantity with multiple trees. However, I could easily see that
this concept would almost be like a club where tree leasees would know
the other leasees and, since apples mature from as early as June and as
late as
November, I could see a lot of private swap arrangements being made.  
Keep
in mind that the different varieties also bloom at different times, so 
early
bloomers quite possibly can be wiped out for the year with a late 
freeze in
April or May.  As far as buying a mixture, with these rare varieties, 
you
now
don't have much of a choice beyond planting your own; they are just not
usually commercially available.  Applesource is your best bet, but they 
have
few period varieties.  Or possibly the 20% share of apples available to 
the
Centre
may be beyond our wildest inklings of our needs and some volunteers 
could
box up a variety pack via mail of the surplus.  I know that these apples
will
simply HAVE TO BE USED OR SHIPPED OUT AS THEY ARE HARVESTED as I do not
forsee any commercial coldroom storage facilities being built 
here...maybe
a rootcellar at most.  Also a matured crop MUST be picked or dropped 
fruit
attracts all sorts of bugs and varmits.  I hope folks like apple juice 
and
cider.
>  From earlier comments on this list I did check out some of the sites
> that sell heritage apples with the idea that this would be a way to
> sample a variety of period apples and apple types. Unfortunately, very
> few of the apples they were selling were period and I can't seem to
> remember to place an order in the time period in which they are
> available. I would love to be able to subscribe to a program where I
> got a selection of fruits. I'd certainly be willing to take less than a
> whole tree's worth to cover the various bits of overhead, packing and
> shipping etc and the understanding that the amount would vary from year
> to year.
The problem here is that this idea is a small branch of things taking 
place
on the property here at the Centre.  Picking, washing, packing, 
shipping and
overhead are aspects of a full-time business operation.  When we get 
into
that level, it no longer belongs as part of a nonprofit, educational 
organization.
I am an architect and can't be a full time orchardist. Regretably, your 
best
bet at getting a selection of fruit is a fruit-of-the-month 
subscription,
though you won't be getting many period ones.  I wish it were otherwise.
Akim
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****