Apple picking in Jetta Farms, S Carolina

 

The orchards stretch out behind us!

Let's go apple picking this weekend”!”said Annika. “Jetta Farms is a great place to go to and they have 23 varieties of apples to pick.

So we piled into the huge Pilot Andy has especially bought to ferry a crowd of family members. 

Seven of us fitted perfectly well into it and were off after lathering ourselves with sunscreen and bug spray. The bug bites are not funny and rather than suffer I quietly listen to my Doc son and DIL to spray on the bug repellent.

                                              The apple trees are just 8 years old!

Off we went on the 1 ½ hour drive to Hendersonville with the winding roads once we were climbing in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jetta Mountain Farm grows apples, peaches, blue and black berries, & more in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. But as we drove in we were shocked to see the number of visitors and cars at the venue. Getting a parking space for these huge American cars is tough. But being a 400 acre farm we quickly found a spot to park.

Inside we picked up baskets to pick our blueberries, blackberries and apples in. One has to pay for each basket so we went armed with 4 baskets for us. Not cheap judging by Indian conversion rates!

                      Rose Gala were all ripe and ready for picking!

The bushes were a little while away from the large club house with tables and food to be bought. We wanted to pick fruit rather than eat first. I was sure I would fill my stomach with fruit as we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted. But we could take only what fitted in our baskets home. Can't imagine such honesty in India. 

We waited in a que till a wagon rolled up with a typical hill-billy long bearded guy driving it to our destination. They had a large number of hired help which is quite strange for the US guiding us and making sure we were helped to find what we wanted. 

The black berry bushes were all planted to one side with the bushes very professionally tied upwards with stakes for us pickers to get at easily. At first we felt –”Ooh! There are no berries to pick, they have all been picked by others who came in early.”But after searching in the lower rows we got enough to eat as well as to pick and fill our two baskets.

The wagons which ferried us from the club house to the fruit picking areas!

The blueberry bushes were easy to pick from as not many people liked blueberries.We had such a good time picking them and stuffing our faces at the same time. They are tiny and blue and delicious! To our luck there were lots of fruit unlike the blackberries and so we had a great time filling our baskets with them. Of course after the black berries most of the gang headed for the main area to order food and drink.

The bushes were laid out professionally and landscaped.

The apples were close to the black berry bushes and so we collected apples on our way out. Only the Gala and the Honey Crisp were ripe and ready for picking.  All the other trees were cordoned off with board sayings “Do Not pick – unripe! Which made complete sense to us Mango and chickoo farmers back home in India. 

Hundreds of black berries all getting ripe in the sun

It was hot and sticky by the time we headed back in a wagon. Many fellow wagon riders had carried flower bouquets which they had picked. There was no way I was going to do that as the flowers were zinnias and Cosmos. Not my favourite choice of flower.

Apple Cider donuts were popular and were on sale everywhere. Sadly being diabetic I cannot touch any of the sweet stuff including the cider. But then the hot dogs and pulled pork are in plenty and I love the sweet potato chips and fried okra (lady finger) to go with it or the sweet kale salad.

We headed home, hot and  tired and ready for a nap before we headed out for dinner to the neighbours.

 

 

 

 

It's exciting apple time

 

The first apple blooms in Hoskote

The excitement in the whole village of Kuruballahalli was palpable. Apple trees growing and fruiting in the deep South of India? That can't be! But it CAN! So let me go bak to where it all began!

Another species flowering as well.

The door bell rang one day and there was a DHL guy with a large package. One of my sons usual buys I thought as I carried the unwieldly package in.  Tearing it open Steve yelled out -- Ma I think this is something for you, not me!

We stood speechless looking at a dozen or more bare root saplings minus any leaves. I wondered what they were but looking at the tags on them I realised they were apple graft saplings and probably sent by someone who knows what an avid gardener I am.

Literally just bare sticks with bare roots packed and sent in their dormant state

They were literally sticks with no leaves and bare rooted. I had learned all about bare root saplings in the UK  with my son David as there you can buy bare root fruit tree saplings even in the super market. And here was a huge bag full of both apples as well as figs sent to me by a really generous friend.

Apples begin to appear in 6 months.

The bare rooted sticks which we planted with much trepidation and doubt suddenly began to get an abundance of leaves and shot up way over my head and even my husbands tall 6 ft. it was thrilling to see that and by then had found out that it was a Colonel in the army from Calangute, Goa who belonged to my Gardening group of which I was admin who decided to generously gift them to me. Colonel D'Silva who hails from Calangute and owns family property there took a chance and wanted to see how they would fare in Bangalore.

  Bunches of apples appear!

He is a skilled grafter and so every one of the grafts he sent me has taken. Here I want to add that I gave one to a chef friend and it died. I gave another to a tenant and it died and the third I planted on the terrace and it died! But every single one we planted in Hoskote, just took to the red soil of the farm and flourished and grew and are fruiting happily.

Now we are waiting to see if they turn red and remain true to type. Cant wait to get my teeth into them!

Apples in Hoskote, Bangalore!

 

A baby bare root sapling planted

Look closely at my picture! Yes its a bare root apple tree sapling sent to me from Jammu and Kashmir by a friend from a Goan gardening group. Colonel P sent me over a dozen of them along with graft figs and we made a morning of it planting in my beautiful farm in Hoskote.

Every now and again we get the urge to plant a few more exotic fruit trees and our friends never fail to send us plants which no one else has. I just have to say I want this or that plant and some friend or the other will order it for me.

So look at that sapling, getting its first baby leaves, with the teak leaves helping to save all the moisture in the soil for it. Slowly over the weeks and now months the trees have found their footing and seem to be very happy in their new home.

                                                 Cutting off the root stock

Of course we have to be watchful and see that the sapling is safe from the heat and different conditions from its home state of Jammu and Kashmir. We also have to cut off any root stock that might come up below the graft. I was taught that by my Dad and I am grateful to put it to good use.

They have grown much taller than me 

Its just been 8 months and they seem to be happy in their new home. The Col instructs us to spread the branches and make the canopy more rounded. We try to understand what to do and hope with pruning te canopy grows more rounded. Pull off the leaves manually and let them feel a fake Autumn  like Kashmir he says, but I cant do that. Which is silly really!

                                                        Flowering in March

Today we have made a regular Sunday visit and imagine our joy to see some of the trees are flowering. The joy we feel is indescribable. How I wish my gardening loving parents were here to see them! Dad especially would have been overjoyed. Apples in Bangalore? he would say. No! No! Cant be!

But yes! Yes! with science anything can happen. Over time botanists have worked on these warm variety apples and these are some of the first growing down South.  Yes in our farm we will have excited botanists coming over the next few weeks from the IISC!

                                                      Arent they beautiful?

We still have a lot to learn. How to thin the fruit, on which branches? How many to take off and thin down? Its a new journey for us just working till now with chickoos and mangoes, avocados and Ramphals. The usual fruit down south. The Colonel has had no luck sadly in Goa. Its too hot and humid there I suppose. But hes our guide and mentor. A kind and generous young man who loves plants and we have found through a gardening group.

By the way our avocado trees are LOADED this year. I love them just like my Mum did!