Water Purification and Filtration

Ancient Roman Aqueduct

Today, I came across a captivating article discussing the history of water usage and purification, past to present, around the world. Although municipal water filtration has come a long way, there's further room for improvement in re-filtering once the water reaches the home. Planning to add a shower head filter and multi-media filter at the kitchen sink.
http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com

Independent nationwide 2009 water study evaluating over 200 contaminants unregulated or tested by water plants:
http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/home

Local Apple Orchard

Discovered a local apple orchard en route to our place that grows a variety of apples. They're called Steele Orchard and are located in Cullman, Alabama. Can't wait to try some of them out, particulary since they're growing some varities not necessarily recommended (yet) by ACES. I'm particularly excited to try their Honeycrisp and Braeburn, since when grown in colder climates, happen to be two of my favorite apples. Hoping they're equally (or more) delicous grown locally.

Here are their posted varieties:

1. Dorset
2. Gala
3. Mcintosh
4. Ginger Gold
5. Golden Supreme
6. Mollie's Delicous
7. Red Delicious
8. Mutsu/Cripsin
9. Yellow Delicious
10. Honeycrisp
11. Ambrosia
12. Jonagold
13. Criterion
14. Granny Smith
15. Fuj

Apple Taste Tests

On a mission to determine best apples for fresh eating available in Alabama. Here's the listing in order of preference so far.

1. Jazz - Very pretty and crisp bicolor apple with perfect mix of sweet and sour. Complex flavor.
2. Honescrisp - Very crisp (if fresh or maybe there's different sports), juicy, and complex sweet and tart flavor. Fairly attractive. Hit or miss with this one though. But a good one is REALLY good.
3. Braeburn - Great apple. As crisp as granny smith and almost as tart but extra interesting flavor. Not the prettiest outside appearance though, not that this matters, but it probably kept me from trying it before all these years.
4. Granny Smith - Very pretty North Carolina apple. Historically this was my favorite apple and is the apple I compare all other apples to, usually. It's very tart, very crisp, very attractive bright green apple
5. Fuji - Ok in appearance. Firm, tart, sweet. Overall a very good apple.
6. Gala- Not a beautiful apple. Crisp, complex and interesting flavor though not acidic enough for me.
7. Arkansas Black - An apple grown in Alabama. Unusually dark and attractive apple. Somewhat interesting flavor but not tart enough for my taste.
8. Golden Delicious - Yellow apple with spots. Crisp and sweet with a little tang. Simple but good. Most widely grown apple in Alabama.
9. Ambrosia - Very pretty and crisp with decent flavor. Mostly just sweet and not sour but slight extra flavor (floral?).
10. Pinata - Crisp fairly attractive bicolor apple with a slight pineapple flavor (or non-apple flavor). Very sweet.
11. Cumberland Spur - Alabama apple. Not very pretty. Crisp. Not terribly remarkable but wasn't comparing alonside Granny Smith like I usually do.
12. Pink Lady - Neat appearance. Tasted this a while back and perhaps should retry, but flavor seemed bland.
13. Empire - NY apple. Skin smells lovely. Soft. Solid red though not terribly dark exterior. OK flavor. Supposedly best eaten fresh off tree (which we didn't do)
14. Jonagold - Very pretty bicolor apple but flavor is bland like Red Delicious.
15. Red Delicous - Very thick skin, mealy, bland, purely sweet with no acidity. My least favorite apple. Only redeeming quality is it's very attractive color.

Soon to be tasted:

1. Cortland - NY apple. Skin smells great. Soft. Not sure of flavor yet. Supposedly best eaten fresh off tree (which isn't an option in Alabama, that I'm aware of)

Red Fleshed Apples

Red Fleshed Apples have been around for some time but have only recently gained commercial attention (in Europe at least).
Yesteday was the 1st I'd ever even heard of a red fleshed apple. If I had heard the term, I'd just assumed "skin" not "flesh" but wow, these guys are cool. I've heard mixed ratings about taste quality.

Next Generation Fruit - Red Fleshed Apple (I think Scarlet Surprise)

Winter Red Flesh (crab) on left and Hidden Rose on right

This site is a great resource for describing the various varieties:
http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/apple52.html

Then this site actually sells some red fleshed apples in USA:
http://www.onegreenworld.com/

Figs and Pomegranate Root Cuttings

About 6 weeks ago, I cut a single twig from 5 varieties of Fig tree and 4 twigs from 1 Pomegranate. They appeared to be 1 year old wood with buds and 8" long each. Dipped them in rooting hormone and planted in Miracle Grow potting soil. 3 Figs have leaves now and the other 2 roots at least. Pomegranate is a dud. Still, I'm happy for it being my first try.

3 of 5 Varieties Of Rooted Figs Sprouting After 6 Weeks

Planning to try again with the Pomegranate. Maybe mid winter or spring, when plant's fully dormant, is a better time. Also, I'll try scraping the bark at the base to stimulate root development. Here's a good website that describes many varities of fig: http://figs4fun.com/

FIGS:

1. 1st place: LSU Purple, 3 large leaves
2. 2nd place: Maybe Brown Turkey but figs are huge (parent), 1 large leaf, 1 small leaf
3. 3rd place: Brown Turkey, teensy tiny leaf about to fall off. 3 leafs before it have dropped too. (11/21, this one died and was tossed)
4. Tied for last: Sugar Fig: Twig shows resistance when tugged, so maybe roots are forming, but no leaves yet. (11/21 update, 1st leaf growing)
5. Unknown Variety:  Same status as Sugar fig (tossed it on 11/21)

POMEGRANATE:

1. Unknown Variety: No leaf or root growth (tossed it on 11/21)

Great Apple Tree Resource

Arkansas Black

 We have roughly 20 starter fruit trees in our orchard and don't know the rootstock on a nair one of them. Nonetheless, I found a wonderful tool today. Sure wish there was one just like it for pears and peaches too. I might start one! http://www.orangepippin.com/

Rubinette

After reviewing OrangePippin's apple recommendations for the South East, I'm tempted to try a few more apple trees. Granny Smith is included since it's a personal favorite and on the orchard already. I tend to disagree with their description that Granny Smith is just "good", but if it's just relative to those other varieties,  can't wait to try them too!

Bramley Seedling