It's a Goodland indeed

When I moved to the great white North ( Canada) almost four years ago, One thing I missed terribly from my native California was fresh fruit grown in my backyard. I grew up with orange, apricot, pomegranate, grapefruit, cherry, and persimmon trees in my backyard ( in the city mind you) . As a kid one of my favorite things was to pick fresh tender sugary sweet apricots off our tree in July and let the warm, juicy, fleshy insides dribble down my chin as I stuffed the entire apricot into my mouth. Needless to say the closest I have gotten to California fruit is reading the "Imported from" labels on many fruits and vegetables grown within minutes and hours from my hometown.

A little over a year ago David and I purchased an empty piece of property in our little town and what did we discover but a heavy laden apple tree amongst many other trees and bush. We also found grapevines, wild asparagus, horseradish and rubarb, but the crowning treat was the apple tree. Aren't the apples pretty? a lovely green with a wash of rosy red.

This spring when we moved an old bunglaow onto our lot and began renovations, our little tree endured a bit of abuse with all the large machinery around. However in July we pulled off around 50 gallons of apples from our tree. I have been baking and freezing lots of pie filling. Here you see my first ever attempt at a Granny Pie, as I like to call it. A very large apple pie. I must admit it was deeeelicious! I took some of our apples to a local tree nursery and the owner told me the apples were Goodland Apples.

I love that name. Goodland. What a great reminder to me that God has led David and I into a good land, and that HE knows my desires and blessed me with a lovely fruit tree in my backyard even in the frozen north... hee hee hee. Now if I could just figure out how to plant an apricot tree that would survive minus 40 degree temperatures. I guess i will have to settle for my mom's amazing dried apricots from our tree in Cali. Here is Eiley and i next to our tree in the winter.