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   

ALL THE OLD TURKEYSONG POSTS ARE THERE AND MORE, CHECK IT OUT!

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

Interstem Grafting Videos

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I just posted up a series of videos on interstem grafting.  This is most of what I know about interstem grafting Apple trees, growing them out, and their advantages and disadvantages.  Maybe a little late for this grafting season, but it’s never too early to start planning for next year!

Simple Biochar Production, and Grape Reviews, a Few Videos

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

ALL THE OLD TURKEYSONG POSTS ARE THERE AND MORE, CHECK IT OUT!

Yay, burn season is here!  Just uploaded a few videos.  A couple of short grape variety reviews, The pretty darn good Glenora and the excellent Reliance (of which I’m eating some right now, and they’re super tasty!).  And a somewhat long winded, but cool, video of burning a top lit open burn brush pile to make biochar (Which Kelpie of Backyardbiochar calls TLOB).  This is one of the two charring methods I’ve been messing with, the slope sided pit (or container), and the open top lit piles.  I think each has it’s merits, but probably more importantly, each might be better suited to certain materials that people commonly have.  Both can be scaled up and down in size and neither should produce a ton of smoke if the wood isn’t either soaking wet or green.  A pit burn video should be forthcoming.  Hopefully I’ll get better at shooting and editing video, learn to talk faster and develop a video personality at some point.  In the meantime, pop some popcorn and check it out.

No Guinea Pigs were harmed during the making of these videos, although some chickens were verbally assaulted.

Fruits of Labor: adventures in pomeography

A cross between Golden Russet and Cox’s Orange Pippin.  It’s pretty, but still under evaluation before I can recommend it, or not.

“Annual vegetables are like getting a goldfish.  Trees are like getting a tortoise that might outlive us.”

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

ALL THE OLD TURKEYSONG POSTS ARE THERE AND MORE, CHECK IT OUT!

When we moved here to Turkeysong six and a half years ago, it was a very rainy December.  We moved into a tiny trailer with just a propane oven for heat.  I was rather unhealthy that winter with long continuing complications from Lyme disease, so my physical resources were limited.  But it was an exciting time and full of promise as we embarked on a long held dream.  Bathing was accomplished at the nearby hot springs most of the winter until I built a wood fired bathtub which worked passably well.  Parking was a mile walk down the 4 wheel drive only road, and the winter was so wet that only two trips were made driving in the 1/2 mile driveway before late spring arrived.  I carried office chairs, a desk and sheets of plywood down the half mile drive.   I remember many times walking in at night after bathing at the springs, exhausted, sick, dizzy and weak.  Most days I spent laying down alone in the damp cold miserable trailer feeling ill and tapped out.  The Accommodations were very uncomfortable, but frugality ruled the day and I still knew where my priorities lay.  Rather than move toward better shelter, showers, making the driveway passable or other creature comforts, I started preparing to plant trees and put in a garden.