Choppin' up Okanagan BC apple trees....

[0gopogo]

The apple orchard beside me is in the process of removin' their trees and replacing them with cherry trees.

Have to leave a big chunk of the base standing so the excavator has something to push with while getting out the roots. There are hundreds of these trees!

This is part of what I cut today....

Kinda sucks they're cutting them down, but it's all about $$$ these days. China loves Okanagan, BC cherries. So there you have it.

 

[Redlegs]

That's nice wood - especially if its next door. Are you cutting the crown out while standing, or dropping them first and then processing the crown out?

 

[Freeheat]

Apple wood is great for cooking with.Get all you can

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Yes sad to see them go but you have a lot of great wood there.....at least they didn't "die in vain"!

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I have burned a fair bit of Okanagan apple tree wood it the past, just be prepared to sit on that wood for 3 years before thinking about putting it in your stove, it takes a looooong time to dry.

You need a more appropriate avatar, to suit your member name.
something like this

or this maybe

 

[Bigg_Redd]

The apple orchard beside me is in the process of removin' their trees and replacing them with cherry trees.

Kinda sucks they're cutting them down, but it's all about $$$ these days. China loves Okanagan, BC cherries. So there you have it.

Everything is all about $$$ since forever. Everywhere. Enjoy the fire(s).

 

[Lumber-Jack]

BTW you missed the the era of old apple trees. Back in the late 70s the orchardist started ripping out all the "old growth" apple orchards and replacing them with the new smaller variety trees, and there was tons of apple wood around. Some of those old trees were massive, but that was their down fall (pun intended), they were so big it made them hard to pick, I remember using some of the old ladders that were 20 ft tall. The newest varieties of apple trees grow like grape vines and everything can just about be picked while standing on the ground. There won't be much firewood in those scrawny things when it comes time to yank em out.

 

[begreen]

The market drives these changes. When we first moved to WA state everything was Delicious Apples. Then about ten years ago the trend shifted to apples the Asian market preferred like Fuji and Gala. Huge orchards were cut up and replanted. Now it's hard to find a Delicious apple any more. Fine with me, I prefer the new varieties too.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Speaking of new apple varieties, there is a new apple variety in the news lately named the Okana Apple, developed by a nice old guy I got to know in Oliver area. If he does half as well with it as another local I know did with the Ambrosia Apple, he'll finally be apple to fix up his dilapidated old house.

 

[begreen]

That's pretty cool. I'll keep my eye open for these varieties.

 

[Thistle]

BTW you missed the the era of old apple trees. Back in the late 70s the orchardist started ripping out all the "old growth" apple orchards and replacing them with the new smaller variety trees, and there was tons of apple wood around. Some of those old trees were massive, but that was their down fall (pun intended), they were so big it made them hard to pick, I remember using some of the old ladders that were 20 ft tall. The newest varieties of apple trees grow like grape vines and everything can just about be picked while standing on the ground. There won't be much firewood in those scrawny things when it comes time to yank em out.

You are right about the big older apple trees.
I remember back in early-late '80's you could visit a local orchard,talk to the owner & they'd let you remove any dead trees,clean up storm damage or do other culling no questions asked.It was the best Applewood I ever harvested in size,quantity & quality.Still have a few blocks/small slabs left from that era that I milled on bandsaw,slowly dried & used in various woodworking projects.

Parts of Europe started doing same thing (going to smaller dwarf trees for more production/easier picking) with their Pear trees also,some years back.I still have a couple very large slabs of Pear that were reasonable in cost & incredible size bought in mid '90's - 2 to 2.5 inches thick,from 10 to 17" wide & 7 feet long.Would cost a fortune if same size pieces were still easy to find today.For years orchardists would sell the big logs from older,non-productive & dying trees to local sawmills for local use & export..Wood was used in fine furniture,musical instruments,carving/turning & other things for the home.Once these large old trees are gone,that's pretty much the end of large pieces of wood unfortunately.

 

[Thistle]

The apple orchard beside me is in the process of removin' their trees and replacing them with cherry trees.

Have to leave a big chunk of the base standing so the excavator has something to push with while getting out the roots. There are hundreds of these trees!

This is part of what I cut today....

Kinda sucks they're cutting them down, but it's all about $$$ these days. China loves Okanagan, BC cherries. So there you have it.

Would be nice if you could go back after they pushed them over & sever that main stem from the roots....amazing how much more you could get on that return trip....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I still like the McIntosch apples the best. The Fuji and Gala seem super sweet and I've wondered how they would be for cider.

 

[begreen]

We grow macintosh style apples Liberty, Spartan and Shay. My favorite is the Shay. It is a mac style apple that grows well here and is very disease resistant. We also have an old variety called King that is very good. Those trees must be 50 or more years old but keep producing well.

 

[firefighterjake]

Partial to maccouns myself.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I

You are right about the big older apple trees.
I remember back in early-late '80's you could visit a local orchard,talk to the owner & they'd let you remove any dead trees,clean up storm damage or do other culling no questions asked.It was the best Applewood I ever harvested in size,quantity & quality.Still have a few blocks/small slabs left from that era that I milled on bandsaw,slowly dried & used in various woodworking projects.

Parts of Europe started doing same thing (going to smaller dwarf trees for more production/easier picking) with their Pear trees also,some years back.I still have a couple very large slabs of Pear that were reasonable in cost & incredible size bought in mid '90's - 2 to 2.5 inches thick,from 10 to 17" wide & 7 feet long.Would cost a fortune if same size pieces were still easy to find today.For years orchardists would sell the big logs from older,non-productive & dying trees to local sawmills for local use & export..Wood was used in fine furniture,musical instruments,carving/turning & other things for the home.Once these large old trees are gone,that's pretty much the end of large pieces of wood unfortunately.

Around 1986 the neighbor I was living next to had an apple orchard he was planning to replant with some new varieties, he had no intention of picking the apples that were on his trees that year because there was no market for them, but he wanted to make some juice with them and said if I helped him I could make some juice as well. We used an unusual harvesting method, instead of picking the apples in the normal fashion we put tarps underneath the trees, then we just bashed the limbs of the trees with a sledge hammer and it literally rained apples on to the tarps. With that method we could fill a whole bin full in about 5 minutes. LOL I can't remember how many bins we juiced, but I know I made 10 gallons of cider and filled about over 20 some odd gallon jugs with apple juice. We drank apple juice like it was water that winter. The juice was fantastic, but I didn't care for the cider that much.

This time of the year we get whatever apples we can get for free, but in the winter we eat a mostly Ambrosia apples, my wife buys them from the local packing house where they keep them in cold storage,,, they hold their flavor and crispness in cold storage better than most other apples.

 

[Cynnergy]

From the store, I like the Ambrosias when I can find them, they're really nice. I can still pick from the 'orchard' (kitchen orchard) my great-grandfather planted - I love the Orenchoes. But ours usually have a lot of scab on them with all of the rain here. Still taste nice though!

 

[Redlegs]

I have a Red D and a Winesap but I am thinking about adding a HoneyCrisp - have you every had the HC? Great Apples!

 

[Seanm]

I have burned a fair bit of Okanagan apple tree wood it the past, just be prepared to sit on that wood for 3 years before thinking about putting it in your stove, it takes a looooong time to dry.

You need a more appropriate avatar, to suit your member name.
something like this

or this maybe

A property here sold recently and the new owner doesn't want the apple trees that are on the property so I will be taking them down and keeping the wood. Not really very big so Im not expecting a lot of wood out of it but was curious how long it would take to dry. Three years will definitely seem like a long time compared to what you and I are used to!