Sunday, September 11, 2016

Four-legged Johny Appleseed

September is associated with the ripening of wild apples that surround the garden. As regular readers will already know, lots of apples means that our local bear is often around.

Very few of these apple trees were planted by humans. The majority comes from apple seeds scattered by raccoons and, especially, bears.

Some of the "wild" apples

You might wonder what I mean by "wild" apples. All these apple trees grew from pips. They are uncontrolled crosses between various kinds, and the majority are not very tasty.

Many are too woody and most of them are sour. Three or four trees produce very good apples that can be eaten fresh, and many of the sour ones are delicious cooking apples.  There are also some wild pears.

As for bears, I should actually say bear in the singular as the garden is part of one specific bear  territory.

Next door to us is a National Park, and they keep tabs on all the local bears and have even given them names. Visiting the park is how we discovered that we were part of the territory of a female bear called "Ruthie". Here she was last summer, eating wild strawberries with her daughter.

Fortunately Ruthie is a wise bear in the sense that she is very much afraid of people and runs for cover the moment she sees a human.

Here is another picture, taken at the end of winter, of the cub quickly heading for cover to join her/his mother.

At this time of the year,  Ruthie needs to get fat to survive the coming winter, and this why she is often around to eat apples.

She ventures closer to the house, especially in the evening or early in the morning. We know she is around even if we hardly ever see her since she leaves her visiting card - which is also her way of  playing Johnny Appleseed.

She uses two techniques to get to the apples. She can stand on her hind legs, grab the tree trunk with her fore-paws and shake the tree vigorously until apples are sent flying in all directions.

Another technique, which is not as gentle for the trees, is to smack down branches. They half break and hang down making it easier to get to the apples.

For Ruthie, this technique has the advantage that the branches keep on growing mostly downward at her level and she does not need to whack them again. The cubs will climb up apple trees, but Ruthie herself is a little big for that.

Branches knocked down in previous years by Ruthie

Over the years she has seeded a great many apple and pear trees which numerous animals gorge on in the autumn. 

In the early 90s, this area was a hay field.  It is now a forest.

Below is how the lane between the house and the municipal road now looks. At least a quarter of all the trees that have since grown on their own between the house and the municipal road are apple trees, graciously made available by Ruthie and family with apples that initially came from an abandoned orchard close by.

Ruthie is not the only one enjoying the apples. Over the years, we have identified the trees that produce the tastiest apples, and we pick those. The rest are left for Ruthie and company (porcupines, raccoons, even foxes and coyotes will eat apples).


  1. I wonder whether Ruthie complains about humans raiding the fruit in 'her garden'. Do you know how old she is?

  2. We learn her name about 7 years ago and have no idea how old she is. One summer, she came followed by a boyfriend. Fortunately we never saw him again (he was not in the least afraid of humans). There is a bear hunt and I expect bears who are not afraid of humans are the first to go. As for stealing from Ruthie's garden, there are literally 100s of apple trees in her territory.

  3. How wonderful to have so many free apples for you and the wildlife to enjoy. Live and let live is my motto, share and share alike, it looks as though there are plenty of apples for everyone.

    1. There is plenty for all but the sad truth is that most people do not even taste them. They only trust apples from a store. Yet, no store sells tart cooking apples (though you might find some at a farmers market). These make a much tastier pie than standard apples. Besides, you know that these "wild" apples have never been sprayed.

  4. How interesting to have a backyard bear.

  5. I think I must have seen Ruthie once, driving down the road toward Dyer's Bay with some students. Of course it might have been one of her parents; it was about ten years ago. Makes a bear a lot less scary to have a nice friendly name like Ruthie!

  6. Oh how wonderful to have all those apples--especially for pie! I agree--the tart ones are best for pie. I usually use a few types of apples in each pie for interesting flavor combinations. Say "hi" to Ruthie!

  7. What a wonderful story, Alain, and having bears is certainly more exciting than frogs. Let's hope they stick to their diet and don't decide to complement it with other things! Lots of wild apples here too but this year we have hardly any fruit, must be the desert climate. Greetings from Gobi, Annette ;)

  8. As soon as I read "sour apples", I thought: apple pie! apple crisp! apple galette! It's good to hear that Ruthie steers clear of people. Your photos, through from a distance, are still exciting. To reduce damage to the trees, have you considered leaving out a ladder for Ruthie?

  9. What a nice way to reach apple! You're lucky Alain to live near the national park and see the cubs in wild, I'd love to. There is an apple tree in my garden that gives little but sweet fruit, I think it's wild too.

  10. What a fascinating post. I can't imagine what it must be like to have bears in the garden. Even ones with nice homely names like Ruthie.I have just been reading a blog post about Copper Head snakes and now we have bears. Some of the blogging community seem to live dangerously to me. It's quite tamme here with just squirrels and rabbits.


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