I’ve not been paying much attention to the apple trees recently, but have just come in from giving them the once-over and am saddened to report that the Hudson’s Golden Gem has dropped almost all of its fruit. I made a point of thinning it to a reasonable fruit density for a tree of its none-too-advanced age, but that seems not to have mattered. I think there may be three apples remaining on it now.
Fortunately, the Ashmead’s Kernel, which was off last year, is retaining its crop so far. I suppose if I have to have biennially-bearing apples — and I do, since these two are some of the most delicious — it’s preferable that at least one produces a crop in a given year, than to have years of feast and others of famine. Still, I will miss the Golden Gem this autumn. It’s really, really good. 
