Hi Dave,

 DD> Mom never regained consciousness after she went down. I remarked to my
 DD> brother that she was essentially "done" when my father died. And he
 DD> then reminded me that she passed on the 3rd anniversary of his death.

 RH> Sounds like she died of a broken heart.

 DD> Pretty much. It was like she didn't care any more. She asked me to
 DD> move in with her - I suspect mostly to help ride herd on my younger
 DD> brother. When she passed I became his guardian.

How old was your brother at the time? My parents both passed away when
all of their children were grown/gone so there was no need for any
guardianship issues.


 DD> I can't recall ever having eaten an Empire. But, there are lots of
 DD> cultivars of apple out there. Did you know that the apples produced
 DD> from the trees spread by the mythic "Johhny Appleseed" (John Chapman)
 DD> were not meant for eating or cooking but for making cider - especially
 DD> hard cider. That's according to an article I read in the Smithsonian
 DD> magazine.

 RH> Didn't know that, but not surprised. Probably a good number of apples
 RH> went into baked goods or eaten as is as well as being made into cider,
 RH> which turned into vinegar as it aged. (G)

 DD> From what I read the apples planted by Chapman were sour and bitter
 DD> and fit only for making cider (and ultimately vinegar). Much was said
 DD> about hard cider and little about sweet cider. So, I dunno. Probably
 DD> would have fit right in with British scrumpy.

Sounds like it so all of those folks that came over from that part of
England would have been happy. Probably passed along to their neighbors
how to make cider and let it age into vinegar.


 DD> Scrumpy is a type of cider originating in the West of England,
 DD> particularly the West Country. Traditionally, the dialect term
 DD> "scrumpy" was used
 DD> to refer to what was otherwise called "rough", a harsh cider made from
 DD> unselected apples.

 DD> You likely wouldn't drink it because of the alcohol. I've tried it and
 DD> don't care to repeat the experience. But, I might cook with it if
 DD> there were some on hand,

Thanks for the head's up. I've not done a lot of cooking with
cider/apple juice in any form tho I did get a recipe for apple cake from
a friend that starts by reducing a quart of cider down to about a cup.


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... The first rule of intelligent tinkering:  Save all the parts!

--- PPoint 3.01