Increasing numbers of growers are using the espalier method developed long ago by French and English farmers who bent branches horizontally and controlled them with frames. They discovered that they could channel the trees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 energy away from random vertical growth into producing spurs that lengthen, flower If you are a hardened Rifftides<\/em> reader, you may suspect that this is another stealth effort to work our way into a piece of music. That is only partly true. As one who grew up in apple country and left it to wander around the country committing journalism, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy to be back. I love to watch apples grow and, of course, to eat them. But, there are so many fine versions of Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Scrapple From the Apple\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that it would be foolish to pass up an opportunity to play one. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stan Getz in a 1966 BBC program, with Gary Burton, vibes; Steve Swallow, bass; and Roy Haynes, drums. <\/p>\n![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Apple-bins.jpg\")
<\/a>Stacks of bins the size of apartment complexes sit waiting to be filled with what Executive Director Jon DeVaney of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association says will be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good-sized crop of high quality.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He predicted to the Yakima Herald-Republic<\/em> that Washington State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apple farmers will harvest 140 million boxes of apples, an increase of eight-and-a-half percent over last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s record 129 million. Picking has begun on a few farms. The full-fledged harvest will get underway after Labor Day. It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be long before the 2014 crop begins showing up at your corner grocery store. There must still be corner grocery stores somewhere. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> and eventually produce fruit. <\/p>\n