Lifestyle

Thoreau was only partly right when he wrote of "... men that lead lives of quiet desperation." Me, I'm loud when I'm desperate. When I complain the dogs join in, and we all howl together.

I howled because I was tired of being a city boy, and while the dogs could relate I think they got tired of my bitching. They gave me that look that says, "If you pick up stakes they aren't going to grab you and drag you back to a gulag they call a back yard—right?—so stop whining."

They were right. So we all moved.

Since relocating the Slowtwitch worldwide headquarters to Valyermo I'm less unhappy. It is, though, a more rustic lifestyle. You've got to learn how to do a lot of things. My geezer neighbors re-roof their own houses, build their own well derricks, and one whispered in my ear the secret of a content life: "Cut your own wood, haul your own water."

This was news to me. My neighbors in San Diego were pretty much of the opinion that you hired itinerant Mexicans to do stuff like that. After one year up here it so far appears to me that the old man was right and the San Diegans were wrong.

In that spirit I've decided to grow my own apples. Apples are not a new subject to Slowtwitch. They symbolized for me a return to one's natural roots, though I suppose a tuber would be a better symbol for that.

After I wrote about apples, Slowtwitch readers started sending my their favorite apples. When I decided, then, to grow my own, I kept a record of which apples I liked the best, and cross-checked with what grows well up here (Valyermo is a historic apple growing community).

Turns out I can grow them all, so I've got Mutsu, Winesap, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Pink Ladies. In particular I thank Lew Kidder and Peggy McDowell-Cramer for help in choosing. Twenty-one apple trees so far. Peach, pear and nectarine coming next year.

How do you grow apples? I'm not exactly sure. It takes water, and some fertilizer, and you've got to prune the trees every year. It's going to be four or five years before I actually have a crop. Apple trees are like children. Yes, they're biologically able to bear fruit at an early age, but they won't be very happy if you let them mate when they're able. Best if they grow up first. Therefore—I'm told—you keep your trees free from fruit for the first few years, whence, perhaps, the term, "Nip it in the bud."

I planted these trees as bare root stock back in March. So far, everything but the Pink Ladies seem to be doing fine. It appears I've not been a good steward of these late arrivals—they showed up two weeks late. We'll see how they do. Perhaps I'll report back.