Wednesday, September 16, 2009

On being Noted, fruit, and the Historic Iron Bridge

Take note, I've been noted. Traffic to my little blog has spiked over the last 24 hours to over 5000 hits. That's a lot. Hello world.

Weird.

Apples
It seems the apples have come a bit earlier this year. On Friday, Liza and I are going to ride the apple circuit and collect from my favorite mostly-public-space fruit trees.

It would be cool to have an interactive map that shows where the good mostly-public fruit is around town. The way it would have to work would be to have a map that is not visible until a user provides at least one good source for fruit. The hard part is verifying the source of fruit a user submits. There's a scale issue there.



This is a small haul from one of my favorites last year. Lunch: Natural Start.

In any case, there are hundreds of apple trees that are fit for picking in this area. Any cyclist that keeps an eye out is sure to see many apple trees. What I've found in the last couple years are two or three great apple trees: crisp, sweet, non-mealy, not wormy. The money trees are pear (I know of one that is mostly public and many that are private) and apricot (same deal there). Plums are interesting, but not money.

So, we'll pick on Friday and on Saturday, we'll make apple sauce and apple butter. You can throw any old apple into sauce or butter as long as you lean towards the green/tart for the majority.

Iron Bridge

My favorite project looks to be complete next Summer. It's the key piece of the East Sprague\Chief Gary connection and will make getting to the new Pedals2People space (1802 E Sprague) way easier from downtown.

From our esteemed bike/ped coordinator, Grant Wencel:

"The funding we received from the WA State Recreation and Conservation Office includes design and construction.($530,000). The detailed design work will begin this fall/winter by outside consultants, with construction planned for 2010."

18 comments:

Allen said...

Congratulations on being noted! I'm enjoying my visit to your blog, and I enjoyed reading about your apples! There is an old apple tree near the path that I run, and I always stop and get a couple of apples to eat while I run. The apples are small but good!

Anonymous said...

Now if only Erie street could get paved there would be an easy, out of the way to get to the South Hill from the trail.

John Speare said...

Luke: for paved, Helena is an easy shot. It's wide and provides timed lights at Sprague and Trent. Once the Iron Bridge is complete, Helena seems like best paved option. Part of Erie may get paved for the MLK/Riverside Extension too.

Alice in Wonderland said...

Hi, just called over to congratulate you on becoming a Blog of Note!
We have loads of apple trees where I live in England, and this has been a really good year for them. I usually pick some to keep for over the Winter, or make cider out of what is left!
Pop over and visit me sometime1

Anonymous said...

еуе

Surfer Earning Free said...

Very nice blog... Congrats..
Well done with great quality content.. Good luck!!!
Dealz
http://yougetfreetraffic.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Somone is ahead of you in mapping fruit trees. . .but they're in Seattle, http://www.cityfruit.org/

I think you could post Spokane trees though. . .

-Max

EvilElf said...

Congratulations! Now a lot of other people know what a great job you do with your blog, John. Plus, they get to watch Spokane's cycling scene expand before their very eyes.

Constantin Gabor said...

When I was a student in Scotland I used to pass by some apples tress at the edge of the road. I always stopped for a snack and the rode forward for Cummingston cliffs - for climbing. :-)

Anonymous said...

Nice to be on blog of note. You do have an interesting blog.

Suzanne Wilson "Demolition Mama" said...

So good to read about Spokane. I go there for one week a month to spend time with my granddaughter. Although, my blog features houses from North Vancouver, B.C., Canada, when I am in Spokane I will be writing about a some of your historic and distinctive buildings. I'll watch for you on your bike.

Ashley Kay said...

I love how you actually said "on being noted" as opposed to "I'm a blog of note"- You have a good blog, you deserve it!

Ashley Kay
lillawyer.blogspot.com

DCGuru said...

Love your blog. I ride my bike to work and home. Live in the city though )-: so no apples just cars lol

Unknown said...

Congratulations on getting so many hits! Your dad has a cute little apple tree that has a ton of fruit on it!
~ Cozette : )

Jean said...

nice shot!

ps you're invited to comment on my post too =)

obiavi said...

cool blog

Kelli said...

Very cool blog! What kind of bike do you ride? I'm looking to upgrade mine in the near future and have been pointed towards a few of the old trusty brands (Gary Fisher, Cannondale) but would like an opinion from someone who seems to really know what they're doing. :)

hussein said...

Nice blog