Thinning the Harvest

My dwarf fruit trees will have their first significant harvest next fall.  Together, the trees set on more than two dozen apples and one pear, just on target for trees their age.  But the limbs are yet young and some are vulnerable and so the responsible gardener must thin the apples, so that they grow at least six inches apart and don't weigh down the branches too much.  So a branch may start looking like this:

Once thinned, it looks like this:

These apples have a good shot at successfully maturing and have me dreaming of a small bowl of fried apples and a few lunch box snacks.  The thinned apples, nine in total, went to the compost heap where they will likely serve as a sumptuous feast for a few bunnies of my acquaintance.

In my book, that's a gardening win-win.