04 October 2006
first day again
After a long bus journey, Nahman met us as arranged at the bus stop in Baddeck, and drove us to the Crown Jewel Resort. When we arrived, we went to our room (in the very plush guesthouse) and then to the restaurant where dinner (beef stew) awaited us. The restaurant is beautiful – both the guesthouse and restaurant buildings are based around the timber frames of two old churches from New Brunswick, and all the beams are exposed on the inside. The beef was good too – Highland beef from the ranch. All the crockery looks to be hand-made: stoneware with a pretty grass design.
Our first job was picking apples from the orchard, which they use for apple juice (they call it cider, though sadly it isn't fermented). Wendy, who works with the animals, drove us there in a buggy pulled by Einar (a Norwegian Fjord horse). They don’t use any tractors on the farm – just horses and dogs. The horses don’t have bits, and they are all trained to respond to voice commands, although the reins are used a bit too. Einar seemed very well-behaved.
The orchard has gone a bit wild as it is an old one that has only recently been brought back into use. The British planted a lot of apple trees in Nova Scotia in colonial days and there are many orchards in the Annapolis Valley that are still cultivated, but most of the ones in Cape Breton have been abandoned. We had to taste an apple from each tree before picking from it as some are tasteless and others are very bitter. All the trees are different varieties – presumably having hybridised. We came back at 11:30 for lunch, then went out again. By the time we finished for the day we were fed up of the taste of apples.
We went for a little walk and admired the views of the trees. There is an amazing amount of forest here – miles and miles as far as you can see. The colours are very beautiful too – Nahman says he thinks the next few days will be the best time for the Fall colours, before too many leaves fall off. We had dinner in the restaurant again. George (the chef) cooked just for us as no-one else was eating. Could get used to having our own chef...
(slow internet connection here, so no photos for a while. Will rectify when we can - we're still taking lots!)
Our first job was picking apples from the orchard, which they use for apple juice (they call it cider, though sadly it isn't fermented). Wendy, who works with the animals, drove us there in a buggy pulled by Einar (a Norwegian Fjord horse). They don’t use any tractors on the farm – just horses and dogs. The horses don’t have bits, and they are all trained to respond to voice commands, although the reins are used a bit too. Einar seemed very well-behaved.
The orchard has gone a bit wild as it is an old one that has only recently been brought back into use. The British planted a lot of apple trees in Nova Scotia in colonial days and there are many orchards in the Annapolis Valley that are still cultivated, but most of the ones in Cape Breton have been abandoned. We had to taste an apple from each tree before picking from it as some are tasteless and others are very bitter. All the trees are different varieties – presumably having hybridised. We came back at 11:30 for lunch, then went out again. By the time we finished for the day we were fed up of the taste of apples.
We went for a little walk and admired the views of the trees. There is an amazing amount of forest here – miles and miles as far as you can see. The colours are very beautiful too – Nahman says he thinks the next few days will be the best time for the Fall colours, before too many leaves fall off. We had dinner in the restaurant again. George (the chef) cooked just for us as no-one else was eating. Could get used to having our own chef...
(slow internet connection here, so no photos for a while. Will rectify when we can - we're still taking lots!)
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Do apple trees produce good fruit for a long time or do they need to be pulled up and re-planted every so many years?
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