Boring news is good news! Nobody needs more suspense these days. So here's a boring update on our apple buds. The March weather stayed pretty cool! Our early-bird variety, Wickson, is just showing some silver tip. (You may recall that premature warm weather brings on premature bud-break, which often leads to internal freezing during a cold snap and - pop goes the future apple crop.)

FYI Wickson is a fairly modern cider apple, developed in California for fermenting, in the early 20th Century. But then came Prohibition, so Wickson's cider career was delayed till the late 20th Century. Up here we first planted Wickson back in the 80's for eating, because unlike many of its fellow squeezer varieties, a Wickson apples tastes fabulous!  All two bites of it.  Now we grow lots of Wickson, and other orchard cidermakers have planted lots more.

Of course, with over a month to go till the ideal bloom-time, we must not start imagining a nice Wickson crop...
Better to think about ways we can help out locally during the present massive upheaval.