Always a Day Late and a Dollar Short

After much consideration my husband and I planted an apple tree in the backyard about 4 years ago. I say after much consideration because we couldn't really agree on what type of fruit tree we wanted to plant. He wanted a cherry tree because he loves cherries. I wanted a plum tree because...well, I love plums, but mainly because my grandmother had a plum tree that I used to pick from when I was a child. I remember running over to my grandmothers house with a large bowl as my mother watched from our back porch. My grandmother would come out and help me pick as many plums as I could fit in my bowl and often times...many more. I would stagger and weave my way back to the house dropping and picking up plums all the way as my grandmother watched from her yard. My mother and I would wash them and start eating them as soon as I got in the door. BUT my husband didn't want a plum tree because plums are a soft fruit and he felt they would make too much of a mess when they fell from the tree. We considered a peach but I made the point that a peach is a soft fruit too.
We decided to go with an apple tree because it's a much harder fruit and it's very versatile. Excitedly, we ordered from http://www.starkbros.com and we planted it as soon as it arrived. We ordered a special apple tree. One that had been grafted to produce 5 different types of apples. I don't remember all 5 types but I do know it has Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Lodi. We were told it wouldn't produce fruit until it was approximately 3 years old. We had crop after the first year. Not much though and the apples we did have were very small but we were happy nonetheless. This year it's 4 years old and we were unprepared for apple season. We picked probably between 35-40 apples and we threw several away that had insect damage.
I went to the store the other night and bought a book that tells you everything you need to know about preserving and of course it had several recipes in it. Now I'm super excited and super sad! I'm super excited because now I actually know what I'm doing and I've got all kind of really great recipes to make apple jelly, apple jam, spiced apple rings, cinnamon apple syrup, apple sauce, apple butter, spiced apple butter, apple with raisin and cranberry compote...SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!! I'm super excited! But I'm super sad because the apple harvest is almost over and it looks like I'll have to wait until next year to exercise my new found knowledge :-( . I guess now I've got time to prepare myself. I still have to buy some of the canning equipment required. Maybe I'll try going to the fresh market and picking up some fresh produce and try my hand at canning to get some practice in. I'd hate to ruin all the wonderful apples we harvest next year after a year full of waiting in anticipation...
It seems like I'm always a day late and a dollar short....