Apple Tasting Time!

But before we get to the apples, you must suffer through an onslaught of cuteness, starting with Halloween: we had a little bee, a black cat and a cowboy. I have to find some more pictures, the cat and the cowboy didn't make it on my phone. We split up, so we never got all three in one picture.

 

 

Chicken-riding.

 

AND! I couldn't get the sisters to do "40 for 40" but I went ahead and donated my 10.

 

There was a lemon-lime-ade stand one day. I think the total earnings were $4. Sammy and the neighbor kids had the idea and then the neighbors had to leave for a while, leaving Phin and Sammy to man the booth.

 

Can you spot the cat?

 

Can you spot the chicken? Fluffy now sleeps up there every night. And it has been months since our last eggs. They are no longer molting. I think they are on strike since we had some rodents coming into the coop. We've managed to get rid of quite a few, but I saw one again yesterday.

And now on to: The great apple tasting of 2014! We tried: golden delicious, honeycrisp, cameo, ambrosia, Jonathon, piñata, pippin, McIntosh, braeburn, macoun, empire, jazz, jonagold and a Fuji from our tree.
The winner for all 4 of us: the homegrown Fuji - crisp, sweet and just a bit tart.
(Note on methodology: I cut up half of each type, put the sticker on the bottom of the plate and then numbered the plates randomly. Most of us rated them 1-10 on flavor and 1-5 on texture to come up with a total. Mr. Burli only rated flavor and Sammy decided that texture also meant appearance and should be worth 1-10.) My second favorite was Pinata ("sweet, easy to eat"), Jonagold was Mr. Burli's runner up and Jazz was Julian's second choice. Sammy's second choice was a four way tie between honeycrisp, macoun, jazz and jonagold.
Losers: Jonathon (mushy), pippin (sort of lemony?), braeburn (also mushy). Once again it is clear that honeycrisp (a type people hype) is nothing special. My notes say "pleasant, but not exciting". I think some of these would be better as applesauce and others as pie. I am not an expert, so I will have to cook some to know whether they disintegrate or hold together.