NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Fall is nearly upon us. Sept. 23 marks the first official day of autumn. This conjures up images of cornstalks pulled into ordered sheaves, piles of pumpkins as round and orange as the full moon, and crisp, juicy apples. In Southern California, apples are synonymous with Julian.

Vic was attending a water quality conference, and wasn’t able to go with me to Julian last week. He missed a fabulous day trip. It took me a little over two hours to drive 50 years into the past. Back to a simpler time, a time when women canned applesauce, made apple butter, and baked pies from scratch. You can rediscover the past, too, by going south on the 5 Freeway, then east on Highway 78 until you reach Julian. Then stop at a U-pick orchard and pick a peck of apples.

My first stop was MJ Ranch and Orchard. I had set up an interview with orchard manager Brian Kramer. He, in turn, had arranged for the orchard owners, Marge and Joe Rubenson to be there as well. I was overwhelmed with the warm and friendly welcome I received.

Marge and Joe bought their Julian property 23 years ago. They fell in love with the view, and bought the property at the base of Volcan Mountain with an existing apple and pear orchard. That evening, they sketched out plans for their retirement home on a napkin. They had no idea what they were going to do with an orchard, but sometimes nature alters people’s life course. Those trees meant retirement wasn’t in their future.

They switched careers from engineering for Joe, and mathematics and psychology for Marge, to second careers as ranchers and artists. Marge maintains a pottery studio on the bottom floor of the house. Joe has recently published a book of his photographs, “Julian Magic: Small town country pleasures.” The book is as warm, homey, and delicious as an apple turnover. He’s working on a second book.

I had heard that Marge and Joe have been married for more than 60 years. I tried to entice them into telling me how long they had been together by commenting that Vic’s parents had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

“They’re amateurs,” said Joe.

“Kids,” laughed Marge.

I couldn’t believe they were old enough to have been married that long. Marge bounced around the orchard picking newly ripened apples and pears with the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store.

After researching Julian orchards on the Internet, I had chosen their orchard to visit first because I liked their family-friendly philosophy. They believe that picking apples should be a great experience, a fun family adventure. It’s all about the apples, not the money. They charge $10 for a one-peck bag, which is twice as many apples as other orchards allow for the same price. But you might not want that many. A peck of apples weighs about 10 pounds and will contain about 30 medium apples. It takes only two pounds of apples to make a pie.

MJ Ranch is open only a short time during the season. They opened for picking last weekend, and expect to be out of fruit by the end of this coming weekend. You can check their website at www.julianapples.com for updates.

MJ Ranch and Orchard has 650 trees in widely spaced rows like the old-fashioned orchard that it is. Joe and Marge grow four apple varieties (Golden Delicious, Jonathon, Red Delicious, and Rome Beauty). They also have five pear varieties (Bosc, Comice, Red Bartlett, Yellow Bartlett, and Seckel). They grow the fruit naturally, with no pesticides, so there are a few blemishes here and there. After I left MJ Ranch, I stopped by Raven Hill Orchard to see a very different operation. Manager, sculptor, and poet Patrick Brady talks like he just came from Ulster, but in fact he’s lived in the U.S. longer than in Ireland.

The trees at Raven Hill were planted about 15 years ago. Seven varieties of apples were grafted onto dwarf rootstock to keep the trees small and manageable. The trees are tightly packed in neat rows, all labeled as to type. Patrick is growing beautiful Empire, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Early Gravenstein, Jonathon and Pippin apples.

Patrick started managing the orchard in 2005. He maintains the 8,000 trees mainly by himself. He believes in using all natural means of controlling pests. He has a dog to chase the deer, four cats to eat the gophers, traps for coddling moths, loudly broadcast hawk calls and owl statues to scare off birds, and scarecrows that are whimsical works of art. With this many trees, Raven Hill Orchard is open from mid-September generally into November.

But all was not well in Julian. The evening after I drove home, a wildfire broke out. Firefighters rousted everyone in the middle of the night. Marge and Joe evacuated at 3 a.m. Sunday; Patrick left at 4 a.m. with his dog and cats. The Angel fire burned near the Cedar Glen area of Volcan Mountain, but fortunately did not touch the orchards. Roads are open again, and apple picking is on for this weekend.

Take the whole family on a truly memorable outing to Julian this weekend.