A bitter winter could kill the roots and the tree if they are all in potting soil but this can be averted by several inches of insulating mulch (or snow). Just make sure you trap out or poison all field mice (voles) in the area during fall so they don't girdle your trees in winter. If you have pine voles in your area they seem to like eating roots of trees in potting soil, maybe because its a great medium for them to get around in- soft easy digging and relatively dry. It's a good idea to protect the trunks with some kind of barrier- even foil works well. You can remove it when trees begin to grow in spring. If you have rabbits, protection must stay well above the snow line.

Unbaked pies freeze beautifully. They take longer to bake but the crust is actually better. I prefer all fruit pies to be baked from a frozen state. Having an extra pie or two in the freezer is like money in the bank. Freeze unwrapped until solid then wrap securely and label. (I wrap with foil- which can always be reused - then place in a large plastic bag.) Carol

This is so funny because one year I made a pie with Empire apples (which I love) and in my mind it wasn't "mushy" enough so it was a failure, more or less. Then I took it to work and my co-workers raved about it, with one of them saying, "I like this because you can see and taste the individual bits of apples. That's the best kind of apple pie." So it's quite a matter of taste. I made applesauce last weekend for my mom with McIntosh, which gives you the standard type of applesauce like you get in the store bought jars. She loved it, I hated it. I like mine chunky and thick, with individual pieces of apple still left, so I use golden delicious or Empire for mine. I had never heard of Cortland or Empire apples until I had moved out east, but then out east you hardly ever see Jonathans, although now they have Jonagolds, which I guess are a cross? Now I am seeing both Cortlands and Empire in Michigan. Nowdays I have to limit my apple consumption to Gala and Fuji and Pink Lady, mostly. I cheat though, for pies and the like. Plus I really love Empire apples. They are the sassy offspring of red delicious I think. That apple aint what it used to be, although it is BF's favorite still.

Luke, not sure you still have the worm farm, but I will respond for others out there. I had mine for nearly a year. Got my composting worms from a competent worm farmer and she answers my questions when something pops up. I freeze all my worm food before I serve it. It breaks down the cells and make it nice and mushy for them when it thaws out. The worms eat through it much faster. If the apple core is not starting to rot, the worm will wait for the decomposition to start. If you get different types of worms, read about them and their favourite habitat. Some worms are for fishing and will not survive in a bin. Outdoors worms don't feed on the surface and are not good for the bin either. I got 1/2 a pound of European night crawler. They are not big, but they are awesome. They make babies and eat a lot. They are small to medium in size. Very easy to care for because when I started I knew very little about vermicompost. Good Luck, Gale