Peeling Oak Bark for Tanning Leather and Apple Breeding Update

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Here are a couple of recent videos I did on the stuff I do around here.  One is a short update on labeling and protecting fruit that was pollinated earlier this year as part of my apple breeding project.  I talk a little about the breeding parents and related stuff, but it’s pretty straightforward and short, with a quick visit to my new pig.

The second is a follow along while I cut down, cut up, and peel the bark off of a tan oak tree that is infected with the organism involved in sudden oak death.  I use the bark for tanning skins.  I’m working on a book right now on tanning with plant materials like bark, various leaves and pods and stuff like that.  Writing, research and experiments around that project now consume most of  my time, energy and thought.  In the video I show a few pieces of leather tanned with oak bark, peel the bark, split the wood and clean it all up.  There are few things I’d rather do with my time than that type of forestry work.  Splitting wood, playing with wood, using my axe, burning brush to make charcoal, etc..   is all my idea of a good time!  woo hoo!  It’s really hard for me to cut these videos down and focus them in.  There are so many satellite topics I want to talk about!   Definitely some stuff coming on axe use, wood splitting tutorials, forestry and forest ecology, and lots of tanning and skin working stuff.

Two Sweet Crabs That Don’t Pinch! Trailman and Centennial, Delicious Super Early Crab Apples,

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Here is my review of two crabs that fruited here on Frankentree for the first time ever. Centennial and trailman are very similar and seem to ripen at the same time.  Both have good flavor and very good to excellent texture, even after a recent heat wave with consecutive days over 100 degrees, 101, 103, 103 in the shade.

I have a particular interest in crab apples that are edible out of hand, with good dessert quality and these two really fit that description.   They are not only very good to excellent in eating quality, but they are also the second apples to ripen here, this year in the first two weeks of July.  “First early” apples are usually low in sugar, grainy or mealy and just not that great for eating.  Time will tell more, but I can already tell from just a few samples that these apples are a great find.  I’ll probably be breeding with these in the future as I think excellent dessert crabs are something that needs work and has great potential.  These are super easy to eat, since you can eat the entire fruit with the core, seeds and all.  The seeds only add to the flavor, like an almond flavor filled center.

A Video Tour of my Amateur Apple Breeding Project

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A walk around looking at various parts of my apple breeding project.  It doesn’t look like much, but I think it’s getting the job done.  I spotted my first blossom while filming this.  Way cool, that means I’ll probably have some bloom next year, hopefully followed by fruit!

Amateur Apple Breeding Video Series Launched!

Ooooooh Yeeeaaaahhhhh, The Money shot.  Spread the love baby (you have to read that in the voice of Isaac Hayes;)

THIS BLOG IS RETIRED, I’VE MOVED TO SKILLCULT.COM   

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Yay!  The apple breeding video series is off the ground!  I really wanted to get it launched this year because I made a lot of pollinations this time around, and I’m not sure how many more years I’ll be doing it.

The first two videos are published .  They are basically the same video in two parts, of me talking about why I’m breeding apples and basically why I think more people should breed plants, apple breeding history, along with some gentle ranting (only had to bleep out one %$#*& word!  Pat me on the head).  The next videos will be thoughts on selecting parents and then onto the fun part, the first how to segment which is on pollination.  The pollination segment is mostly done, and I think it really turned out beautifully with my new drastically improved video capabilities.  (BTW, I will most gladly accept any donations of old manual film camera lenses to further expand those capabilities.  I think I’ve bought every 5.00 junk store camera lens in Ukiah already! :D  I can adapt nearly any older lens from any brand to my Sony NEX 5 camera.  The manual lenses have better focus rings, and often smoother zoom than modern lenses, which can be useful for video…  and they’re cheap.)

The concept of this series is to follow the entire breeding process starting from pollination, for many years onward, until those specific crosses bear fruit, and likely beyond that as the fruit is assessed over a number of years to see if it is worth naming and propagating.   Also, we’ll be following my progress with the whole project which is around 4 years in right now.  I made my first pollinations in spring 2011, so I may get lucky and have some fruit as early as next year.  One of my first seedlings is actually fruiting now, but it is just an open pollinated seedling of Wickson from my friends at The Apple Farm near here, so the pollen parent of that one is unknown.

In order to keep to my usual lower frequency/higher content posting, I won’t be posting all the updates here.  I believe that if you have a google account of any kind, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates.  If I get up to 500 subscribers, I can change my youtube user name/URL, which I will need to do pretty soon when I implement whatever plans I settle on for changing up my websites and youtube channels.  I know, I’ve been saying I’m going to do that for years, but it’s coming, for reals… someday, hopefully soon, when I get it “right”.  My main goal with this video series to is to continue to incite creativity and deeper participation in what we are growing and eating, so please share so I can corrupt more people!  mwaahhhahahahhhaaa…

Thank you all so much for your many comments over the years, and just for being an audience for me.  So without further delay…

This link is to the playlist into which all the videos in this series will be dropped as they are finished.

And for those of you interested in such things, which I imagine are quite a few, I also just started a series that follows the making of high grade Hide Glue from a large bull skin.  Parts 2 and three should be out soon.  This is a sort of follow along and learn as you go type of thing, released as separate videos as I go through the various steps.  The hide glue will eventually be for sale, probably on the Etsy Paleotechnics account.

Hide Glue Making Series