Pickin' and Preservin'

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to pick some apples - they were on a property that had been semi-commercial, an horticultural teaching place (but no longer), but the trees had not been sprayed or pruned for 2 years. So I managed to get five 10 litre buckets - mostly medium size - apples. This week I have been peelin', stewin' and dehydratin' apples and baking spicy apple flans
Today I went and picked my tree clean - this is the result!
The birds have had a great time and now I've left them nothing on the tree :-) So I guess I'll be peelin', stewin' and dehydratin' apples this week! You can tell that these are real apples because if you look closely you will see leaves still attached and dinkum bird poop!
I wanted to plant an orchard on our lifestyle block, because I loved the idea of going out under the trees to pick and eat fresh fruit - yep! like that happens often - there are more birds out in the country than in town and they get first dibbs! Ah well, still love the lifestyle though!