Once again I would like to thank everyone for their support. Since my last post in July, they found that my grandma had a inoperable tumor in her stomach, she continued to be unable to eat more than a few bites at a time. We took her home and were able to keep here there, thanks to all the wonderful friends and family who helped and a great doctor, who allowed us to keep her home and gave her everything she needed to be comfortable. She passed away at 4:30 saturday morning, my mother, my daughter and myself were at her bedside, she died peacefully in her sleep. We buried her yesterday, it was warm, sunny and she was surrounded by many beautiful flowers (I'm sure you're wondering, no, none of them were from his shop) Thank you all again for all your emails and prayers Sheila

I'd say keep the tree - the Granny Smith apple has so much going for it that I'd have to think that it's worth trying, even if just for those years that it is able to ripen for you. I leave mine on the tree as long as I can - right through mid 20's frosts - to try to ripen it as fully as I can. This fruit seems to withstand this treatment, during which it must partially freeze, without noticable injury. After harvest it maintains good texture and flavor in cold storage until May. Even in those years that it doesn't adequately ripen, as Harvestman alluded to, you'll end up with something akin to those Grannys they sell in the supermarket - disappointing maybe, but not a total bust. Maybe better than assessing your chances of ripening this apple by your USDA zone (which is determined by winter lows) would be by your growing season length. Here's an old map showing growing season length, which I would think gives a conservative estimate compared to what's probably true today. I'd think if you live in the area marked as 150-180 days, you should have a fair chance of ripening this apple. There's a good bit of zone 5 and even some zone 4 in this territory. http://www.cartoko.com/2010/05/average-length-of-growing-season/

That's interesting. The only thing I use yellow transparent for is to make dog food, and the apples turn to mush almost instantly, even when they aren't peeled. They would make a nice smooth apple sauce with very little effort (and very little flavor). I did an upside down gingerbread with granny smith and the texture and shape of the apple slices was fine, but impossible to tell about flavor since the gingerbread was strongly flavored. So maybe Granny Smith is very sensitive to cooking time. My apple Betty doesn't cook all that long, but the apples are not insulated by pie crust. They wouldn't get as done if the crust had to cook before the heat got to the apples. My Grannies didn't get fully ripe, but they are a lot more ripe than the one's from the store. However, they aren't so ripe that they should be cooking fast and falling apart. I'll try cooking with them again and I'll check them frequently for tenderness and remove from heat as soon as they get tender.

Thanks for your kind words about my abandoned mosaic child :) I *will* get back to her soon, I will, I will :) And oh dear..I sit here at my desk surrounded by my current favorites of my Goodwill-sourced modern art pottery collection, looking at yours...we have very strangely close tastes...I love those splendid little vases and have to restrain myself from buying every one I find, because of my visceral love for glazes and textures :) Those are so dear; I *love* them. Thanks for posting -- maybe I'll photo some of mine and post them so you can see -- not many people appreciate them -- my DH very sweetly tolerates my slight obsessions :) (side note: what's the grouting situation on the plane change of your shelf? Is there grout between the vertical and horizontal tiles? )