Anna - The Apple Actually Fruits!

Anna is among the first of the apple trees we planted in our orchard - back in 2003. Every year it is the first to flower, covering itself with blooms. Until this year, that was all the more we got - it never previously set fruit. In case it never happens again, I thought I'd commemorate the event!

This is an early season apple, ripening ahead of all our other varieties. I look forward to trying one!

Goumi Berries!

Elaeagnus multiflora grown at LittleGrove Farm! 

It is Goumi Season! This seems to run right around the end of June and be over by the middle of July for us in the Santa Cruz Mountains. These normally are exceptionally abundant on the bushes, however, that is before my son had a "snack".

This is hard to find in any markets, so we grow them ourselves. The berries are soft, sweet and with a nice flavor when ripe, yet pucker-y if you get them before they are soft and fully ripe. There is a single seed in the center. The seeds are soft enough to eat and have the same basic flavor as the rest of the berry.

My son says "They are tasty when they are ripe and sour when they are not ripe".

Ahuna Mons on Ceres in scale model made by Botta's Pocket Gophers

Now you don't need to go to Ceres to see Ahuna Mons... or at least a scale model.

This is a mound of dry, unconsolidated soil pushed out and up through a circular hole entrance. The artist is a Botta's Pocket Gopher living in the Blue Oak Savannah of the central Sierra Nevada foothills.

What I find interesting about it is that structures at radically different scales on disparate worlds can be made by similar processes, even in a back yard.

While there are better analogs at closer scales (Inyo Domes for example) this is essentially the same process, admittedly at a lower temperature.