The Yellow Transparent variety of apple, which originated in Russia, was introduced to the United States around 1870. This is a common, old time variety here on Whidbey Island, and right now they are ripe and fallnig on the ground everywhere you look.
A friend of mine told me that when he was a kid in the 1940’s he knew the location of every fruit tree within a three mile radius of his house. For him summer was all about which yard had the best plum tree, with limbs that had grown over the fence, draping into the alley so that he could get at the fruit. Of course he admits that as a youth he was not at all averse to jumping a fence if he thought he could get at those plums and not get caught. I appreciate that story because I too grew up with fruit trees, both here on Whidbey Island as well as in Northern California. I can attest that a ripe apricot, picked right off the tree on a warm early summer day has the potential to change a child’s life forever. (more…)
Puget Sound Bites 