Apple harvest
Posted: Sunday 30 September, 2007
We planted our modest orchard 5 years ago now, and this year we've really started to reap the benefits. We got our first ever pears (all three of them!) and the plums are beginning to crop well, but it's the apple trees that are most gratifying.
Our Peasgood Nonsuch and Claygate Pearmain are long gone (bark ravaged by bunnies) but the Sunset, Egremont Russett and Dumelows Seedling are all now well established, and yesterday we harvested their fruit and put them into storage.
We don't have any dedicated storage for apples, so we begged boxes and trays from the local Sainsbury's, and they very kindly put some aside for us. The unblemished fruit went into the boxes, stacked on shelving in the garage, the small damaged fruit went to the pigs, and the larger damaged fruit into a big "eat-now" bucket. It's eve's pudding tonight and some form of apple dessert every night for a month until they're gone!
I love russett apples, but the flavour of the Sunsets is to die for. They are entirely organic - no spray, no pesticides, no chemical fertilisers - which makes it even more frustrating that at this time of year the supermarkets (at least Tesco where we shop locally) only ever carry one variety of British apple (normally Cox) and a dozen from overseas.
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Comments
Dan
Try the supermarkets, they can only say no! We got a few cardboard apple boxes and one really good plastic one - next time we'll be hinting about getting more of those!
jandra
Lovely apples! Just harvested my own crop of 11 Elstar apples a couple of days ago. Just the second year I've had the tree, so I'm pleased. It's great to see what it can be like in 5 years with a few trees. Thanks for sharing the pics; very encouraging.
Regards, Jandra
Scooby
Hmmm I have to put my hands up at being pretty useless when it comes to apple trees, mine just seem to grow wildly then drop all their fruit all over the garden... or get full of bugs!
Janet
We have our first crop of Tydemans Late Orange this year. I have just picked them all as frost (0 degrees C) is forecast this week, but they were not really ready & had to be wrenched from the bush. Can anyone tell me if these late ripening apples will withstand a light frost & so be left longer on the bush?
Comments are now closed for this post.
Sara
Sunday 30 September, 2007 at 8:12pm
I have an orchard with apple trees galore. This post is very useful. I need to find good storage for my apples. Sara from farmingfriends