Writes Manjula Martin, in "The Rebellion of a Fruitless Apple Tree/As the rest of our culture thrives on overexposure, why shouldn’t a garden have the right to retain an air of mystery?" (The New Yorker).
I'm blogging this article simply because we have apple trees that don't bear fruit. It's a topic that hits close to home, but I was also delighted to see Bartleby, one of my all-time favorite literary characters. Now, I can't help but feel that commenters will zero in on the word "unburdened," which has been said way too many times in the 2024 election cycle. This post was supposed to be a break from all the election blogging. It's about apple trees. And yet I will get the jump on the comments I anticipate and say that line — "But it reaches ever upward, each lateral proudly unburdened by fruit" — could make a satirically apt slogan for the Kamala Harris campaign.
And now that I've come this far, let me point you to the great podcast episode — #833 of "Modern Wisdom" — "Are We On The Brink Of A Revolution?" The interviewer, Chris Williamson, asks "Can you please try and explain to me what you interpret by 'what can be unburdened by what has been'? What does that mean?"
And now that I've come this far, let me point you to the great podcast episode — #833 of "Modern Wisdom" — "Are We On The Brink Of A Revolution?" The interviewer, Chris Williamson, asks "Can you please try and explain to me what you interpret by 'what can be unburdened by what has been'? What does that mean?"
The guest, Eric Weinstein, struggles dramatically:
A transcription of part of Weinstein's answer:
I don't know if I should say, I don't know if I should say. There's a line in Marx where sometimes you hear certain phrases like "a world to win." AOC uses the phrase — "we have a world to win" — which comes from the end of "The Communist Manifesto."... It basically says you have to wipe out what has been to arrive in the new.... ["What can be unburdened by what has been" is] not a direct translation, but it occurs in Karl Marx. I could — I wasn't expecting this — I could find you the exact reference. If, you think about what Mao had to do to wipe out Chinese history, what Pol Pot had to do. You're trying to wipe out memory because the memory has all of this burden. Why do you, why, why is it important to go after doctors and lawyers and teachers and professors? Because in some sense they're going to resist the new order that you're about to impose. You're looking for a blank slate....
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Why would anyone - and I mean anyone - agree with the likes of AOC, Karl Marx and Mao? All three of them are/were total failures with the last two responsible for millions of dead people.
Why should we destroy the world we have and start over? That's a completely fucked up and terrible idea.
The Left has the insane idea that if the United States alone achieves net zero, then the whole planet won't burn up in 2100. I've debunked that notion hundreds of times but a big percentage of the US population believes it and, most importantly for me, all 8 of OPPD's directors.
I really can't believe how stupid most people are. It is completely obvious that CAGW is the biggest scam in the history of the world. Sometimes I think I'm the only smart and sane person in some rooms. And I usually am.
The dominant evil ideology of our time is not communism, but feminism, which posits that the source of all evil is that we are male and female, and that that must be eradicated for our salvation. Feminism is the devil worship religion of liberal women. It has focused finally on hatred of procreation because it gets in the way of the non-binary consumer and sex orgy. Or, to quote the Bee from a few days ago: “Democrats Scream In Fury After Spotting Child That Made it Out of the Womb Alive.” The non-bearing apple tree is quite the symbol. No way Eve is going to tempt Adam in your back yard.
I didn't jump to the political connection of "unburdened" because I've grown that apple tree with useless sucker branches reaching straight up. The image, and the feeling of frustration, is clear to me. If I move to any metaphor, it's: stop pruning and trying to control it. The tree will grow the way it likes and efforts to change that only piss it off and make it revolt.
Don't fruit trees take a year off now and then?
Some of the apple trees around here went crazy this year.
that's just one year a tree doesn't fruit isn't it? when it's all worn out from the year before, and you didn't take enough of the new fruit off.
I grew up with a green apple tree in the backyard. We ate a lot of apple pie. Some years were better. Next door had a red apple tree, and it grew apples, but never a lot.
We had a lot of great apple wars. Mowing the backyard was 20 minutes of picking up rotten apples and then mowing.
and a lot of yellow jacket bees. and then the worms.
Whats worse than finding a worm in your apple?
Finding half a worm.
Russets take a long time to fruit in my experience. I’ve got one, a golden russet, that took 20 years, finally giving me some apples this fall. My Ashmedes Kernal took close to 15. Tasty apples but not a tree to plant if you’re a homeowner planting just one or two trees.
Bought a potted cherry tree this summer from a legitimate hoity-toity local nursery-gardening establishment offering both plants themselves and landscape maintenance and planning services. Salesperson was unsure whether my cherry tree was "self-pollinator", or required accompanying purchase of a 2nd different species cherry tree to successfully achieve pollination and fruit-bearing blossoms. Many cherry tree species apparently need another different species cherry tree(s) planted within 100' flying distance for bee pollination to actually occur. Nobody on premises knew which trees were self-pollinators, which needed a 2nd tree, or which need a 2nd tree of different species of cherry tree. Information on tree hangar-tag minimal, not helpful on pollination issue. Goggle info also uninformative. If nursery can't decipher a tree's pollination requirements, how is the home-gardener to know. Go to a big-box nursery, like Home Depot or Lowes and nobody knows nothing about no plants, absolutely blind purchasing.
It's all a cycle. It's been long enough now, since our last bloody Marxist revolution, such that the horrific memories of piles of skulls, or smoldering corpses, that have been alive in our collective memories, are beginning to fade away. And there's been a steady build from our societal communicators to keep those images from daily purview, to allow those warning images to sink and become incoherent, rather than stay alive in our consciousness to keep us from repeating those behaviors.
We are being marched to the next bloodbath, in that gruesome cycle of subjugation-by-government. The New Resistance is the collection of ideas that steer us to be critical of those that would dominate us with rules and laws that are designed to stifle freedom, thwart independent thinking and action, erase the person. Resist ! and be reminded to Vote your interests !
The Big Box stores will often sell plants that are know invasive species. Definitely buyer beware situation. Find a well-run nursery and pay the extra simoleons.
"we have apple trees that don't bear fruit."
Don't or won't?
Every tree is a potential stump. You can't let them forget that.
Mark 11:12-25 Christ cursed and destroyed a nonproductive fig tree. Just sayin' if it was good enough for Jesus, it may be good enough for modern gardeners.
Do your apple trees get enough sun?
Barren apple tree yields no forbidden fruit
Barren apple tree yields no forbidden fruit
I think it’s beautifully written and captures the resigned frustration of every amateur gardener. We all have plants that refuse to do what they’re supposed to, no matter what we do to encourage them. Year after year, they would prefer not to.
Former Illinois resident suggests the likely cause of the non-fruit-bearing apple tree - lack of a second different apple tree to facilitate pollination by bees. Might be a good metaphor to keep in mind for human societies too, for those intent on cancelling others out of their desired monoculture.
Apples are racist emblems of white supremacy.
"As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden. In the garden, growth has its seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again".
Well, it is conceivable that the climate is getting warmer, and increased CO2 is responsible. I don't believe it, but I know intelligent people who do. What is obvious is that the Chinese are not going to stop burning coal unless their economy collapses, and if CO2 is warming the climate, then the climate is gonna get warmed, no matter how much electricity costs in California. Anyone who thinks otherwise is extremely stupid or willfully obtuse or both.
How do you know they're apple trees? How can they be apple trees if they don't have apples? Are you saying they identify as apple trees?
After I left home my parents moved to a gentleman farm in the northeast kingdom that had half a dozen apple trees of heritage varieties. All produced fruit on their own but with the proper attention they produced magnificent, beautiful apples for eating and pies. Crisp, tart, sweet, glorious. They aren’t like growing vegetables or producing flowers you have to do things properly, especially soil. You need a commercial farm abundance of pollinators. Is this grower certain they’re doing things right?
I would say that feminism is just one branch on the Marxism tree. There are lots of ways to claim oppression by the rest of humanity, and feminism is just one of them. But I'm a little perplexed by your theology. Was Eve tempting Adam a good thing? Or no?
My family had the luxury of someone else’s labor to get things right- location, etc. There were also a few apple tree stumps in the yard and some applewood stacked in the wood pile…
Michener told a story about a farmer who drove some long nails into his apple trees, claiming it would make them bear fruit again. He mentioned it in the context of a heart attack he had just suffered. He was hoping it would make him more productive. Although it's hard to see how you could be much more productive than James Michener. Guy was a writing machine.
Yeah, right, planetgeo. I'm from Islam, and I'm here to pollinate you. Allahu akbar!
Well, yeah, Marxism is certainly a problem. But so are George Soros and Bill Gates. You want to avoid getting ship-wrecked on Scylla, but don't forget about Charybdis.
The apple of your eye is code for baby, pruning refers to joyfully wielding a scalpel to removing unhappy sex-correlated attributes, and Unburdened is a reference to Obama's euphemism to denying human life deemed unworthy of life and other purposes in progressive sects.
High phosphorus fertilizer for homeowners is difficult to find around here because the state govt wants to keep it out of the storm sewers, rivers, and reservoirs, but our clay soil needs it. The best I could find was 13-13-13, which is usually more nitrogen (first number) than a vegetable garden needs--too much foliage. You want a high middle number to promote fruiting.
Some fruit trees have a graft of another variety so they're self-pollinating.
I liked Williamson until I saw his recent gym video. Saturation F bombing.
Hi, Jupiter, my rotund, logic-challenged planetary friend. Some of us can handle a wide variety of pollinators in our orbits. I can understand that you're bummed about your red spot from the bee up Uranus.
"Why do you, why, why is it important to go after doctors and lawyers and teachers and professors? Because in some sense they're going to resist the new order that you're about to impose."
He said without evidence. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, and professors are among the first to support the latest version of whatever Marxist nonsense come down the pike. That includes Communism, socialism, national socialism (including mid-century German National Socialism), Maoism, Castroism, Ortegaism, etc. etc. etc ad infinitum.
I believe the actual quote is "what can be, unburdened by what has been."
I am choosing to take this to mean that I, a white American, can live unburdened by the country's past history of slavery and Jim Crow and can safely forget about affirmative action, reparations, etc. Thanks Kamala!
Visiting friends in York, Maine, I commented that the apple tree at the edge of their plot was by far the biggest I'd ever seen, at least 50 feet tall and filled with ripening fruit.
Friend says, "That tree is probably 100 years old. I remember it even when I was a kid 70 years ago. I wish it didn't turn out so many apples each year, as we have to pay kids to pick them up and bag them."
"They're edible, but not pretty, so most people don't want them. In the old days they probably made cider from them."
Don't sit under the apple tree, with anyone else but Meade.
Back in the day, my High School band was selling apple trees to raise money. My brother was in the band, so we bought one and planted it in the back yard. It grew straight up, but only ever produced 1 apple. A very big apple, but only 1 apple. Eventually it grew too tall and started interfering with Dad's Ham Radio antenna. That was the end of the apple tree.
What to do with the tree that bears no fruit? Here's some ancient advice: "Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" Perhaps a bit utilitarian than the norm in Luke, but in context it was just a metaphor. In Brooklyn, we wanted some fruit-bearing plants in our (very small) back yard, and ended up planting a Juneberry tree and some raspberries. The grow well and are prolific. We wouldn't keep them if they weren't.
I've got a 5 year old dwarf navel orange tree. It sends out about a hundred fragrant blossoms this time of year, and I put lavender plans at the base to attract pollinating bees. Result: every year I get one large navel orange. If I didn't love the smell of orange blossoms, I'd pull the orange tree out and be unburdened by what has been.
Luckily, oranges are inexpensive.
As for Eric W, he seems to be stumbling over the simple answer: Harris is an Obama acolyte, and seeks, as Obama does, to fundamentally transform America. Note that this objective is never stated with an explanation of what burdens we will be made to shoulder once the fundamental transformation has occurred. You have to sign the blank check for fundamental transformation, and then check your bank statement at the end of the month to see just how much the check was cashed for.
But, transformers, fear not: you can always say that you meant well, and had a pure heart.
Forgot /sarc
“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”
― Meister Eckhart, 13th century.
Predates Marx by a bit.
Well it obviously has great rootstock. Just lop it off and graft in a healthy young apple tree and within a couple years it will start bearing fruit. All the walnut and many citrus are done this way in CA. Root from one type of tree and top from the kind they want to harvest off of.
She said it had "never" produced fruit.
Self-pollinators have both male and female flowers. They don't need a different species, they need another sex. I've never heard this about cherries* but Fig trees are famously not self-pollinators. We had a gigantic male. But we had good neighbors so the ones with female Fig trees brought us fruit every year.
I looked it up and apricots, another stone fruit like cherries, sometimes requires another variety within 25 feet to pollinate. It differs by varietal.
Michigan State's website has a list. Yes most cherries need a pollinator of a different cultivar. Same with apple trees. Guess that's why they grow best in orchards. Farmers use 20-25% pollinators in ratio to non-pollinators.
Jupiter said...
Was Eve tempting Adam a good thing? Or no?
To quote from preacher's son, Dan Reeder:
What do you want?
I want food and pussy.
How come?
It's just the way God made me.
Is it alright? I guess it must be ok.
Hoo bop bop bop Shengalengalengleng
As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
ISWYDT Chauncey.
Chauncey seems like the right man for the times.
We have an apple tree that produces fruit - bad fruit. Small green apples. The birds and the insects love them. We don't. I think the tree doesn't get enough sun, but that cant be fixed.
As for Weinstein, why go Pol Pot and Mao, when the most obvious and biggest and first example is Lenin and the USSR. WIth a few exceptions, All the Tsarist lawyers, doctors, engineers, and professors were exiled, shot, or demoted. The Bolshieviks called it "Leveling out". They were eventually replaced by Communists who believed in the "New World order".
Of course, it took a while, and society suffered. But the communists never cared about that.
I love the fact that "modern wisdom" gives you a transcript.
I have an avocado that only bears fruit every other year. It's a strange tree. I planted it to replace a Hass avocado that my roommate's dog killed when he chewed all the branches off of it. It's a Fuerte avocado. The weird part about it is that it didn't grow up; it grew out, so it's like a giant avocado bush. (Which makes collecting the avocados easier.) It's a "B" type so that means that it requires an "A" type nearby to pollinate it. It does produce some unpollinated fruit sometimes. They're called "cukes" because they're shaped like cucumbers. (The seed inside doesn't develop.) At some point, I'll plant another Hass avocado because it is an "A" type. I know that there must be a Hass tree nearby because my tree does get pollinated, but having an "A type really close should make for greater yields. I think that the Fuerte avocado tastes better than the Hass, but the skin doesn't darken and get hard to let you know that the fruit is ripe. (The reason that Hass is so popular is that the hard skins make it much easier to harvest and transport with damaging the fruit.)
Wow, modern wisdom is a great podcast. Don't know why I never heard of it.
I made the mistake of planting a peach and nectarine when the climate here is too hot to support that. (The local Home Depot sold them.) They both died after a few years but the base of the dead peach is lush with suckers that keep growing.
I live in a hot climate, so I ordered an Ein Shemer apple tree to plant after the first apple tree died from the hot climate. Ein Shemer apple trees come from Israel, so they can take hot climates. The little tree gives me about 30 or 40 green apples each year and they're not too bitter.
Mike, I actually bought a fig tree that was specifically a self-pollinator because my roommates found out what it takes to pollinate regular figs and declared that they'd never eat figs again. (It sounds pretty gross because it involves fig wasps laying their eggs inside the fig.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Hsqb3hzHg
Chance came to my mind, as well.
What those citizens believed, was irrelevant. The newly-empowered realized that whatever their beliefs, the enlightened ideas that resided in their head, a product of an enlightened education, was the most dangerous thing, the hazard that must be cut out and kept separate, and eradicated to ensure it never became freely communicated. Because if this were to happen, the whole edifice will collapse. These are the people who might be inspired to question.
Bartleby is indeed a great character. I wonder what Ahab would have thought of him.
No, you need to prune hard. Pruning is necessary for a well-managed orchard.
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