apple harvest

In the whole of the Doomsday Book (AD1080) there is only one record of an orchard (a 'pomerium') and that is in Nottingham. Apples were introduced to these islands by the Romans and have been an important part of our lives since then. There is a long tradition of apple growing in these parts, even though other counties have made more of a name for themselves as apple growing heartlands.

Our orchard was planted around 1947 and we began reclaiming it from its overwhelmed state in 2010. Each year we prune away 25% of the old wood to bring the venerable and long-neglected trees back to vigour and productive life. This process will continue over the coming years. The trees are conventional varieties: so far  we've identified Bramley Seedling (c1810),  Lanes Prince Albert (1841) and Cox's Orange Pippin (1825).

But after all our hard work, 2012 was a terrible year for apples for us and we had no crop to speak of. 2013 will be a good apple year and dad and I began the harvest on our Bramley tree today.

The Bramley is Nottinghamshire's own apple, having been discovered as a seedling in Southwell, around 10 miles away. It is a 'cooker' that stores well. By the end of the storing season, its tartness has attenuated and the apple may be eaten as a dessert. In my view it makes the best apple juice and is used as a constituent of cider. So, I'm keen to store as many of the apples as I can and have built shelving from reclaimed wardrobes donated by Steve (aka 'The Great Man') to store our harvest  in our annex.

So there I am, cockling at the end of a ladder perched precariously among the tree branches with a wonderful apple picking device on a stick given generously by our dear friends Trev & Linda. And dad by my side as my attractive assistant, collecting apples from me and dodging those that launch themselves at the unsuspecting below. It took me back to my childhood when my cousin Simon and I would go 'scrumping' from apple trees in the neighbourhood.

A fair old haul for our morning's work with more still to come from the Bramley.

glimmers

Dad tells the story of his encounters with cider. First, during his National Service after the war in Germany. He and his fellow RAF colleagues had visited an area famous for its cider. Dad had been persuaded to try the local brew: his verdict - undrinkable. Then years later, in Somerset with Uncle George, they'd visited a pub famed for its ciders. Having been bitten before, he chose a cider shandy of lemonade and cider: undrinkable.
Our experience has been different. We remember a Dorset family holiday with our kids and Trev & Linda's tribe and discovering that our neighbour was on a local cider trail. Folks dragged up on his doorstep each day with various impromptu containers and took his home made scrumpy away. Jill remembers Trev and I spending a lot of time round at 'Farmer Scrotes'.
Glimmers now, of a return to something like a normal life and of the opportunities that our new life at Cordwood might bring.
But first a phone call to say 'Bring a demi-john so you can take some fruit juice home'. Okay, and can I ask about this phrase 'There is a small barn which will provide some shelter but no toilets' that came with the email? Really, no toilets? We chatted about stuff, including feeding weening babies avocado. I asked at the end of the conversation, "Will we see you on Sunday?' "Hell, no' she said 'There aren't any toilets'.
So, today, to a Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust day course at their Osmanthorpe Orchard reserve making cider - led by Ray Lister.
At Cordwood we inherited an orchard planted in around 1947. The trees are old and grow on mean, unproductive ground. We are steadily bringing them back into productive life through pruning and improving the ground beneath their old trunks and hope to have an apple harvest this year. The best thing one can do with apples is eat them, but when there is a surplus, what better to do than make apple juice or cider?
So, today, crushing ('scratting') apples and then pressing them.
Nine of us on the course but only one fool, (the one with with the thinning hair and vacant smile) got the job of carrying the finished pulp out to the compost each time and punching it out of the wooden tub with his fist while the pulp and juice ran down his cagoule. Of course, I was that fool.
But, an affirming day as we had read quite widely on cider making and looked for confirmation that all we'd read and seen could be realised. We drove away with two demi-johns filled with delicious, brown apple juice. One will be left for the natural yeasts to work their magic while the other received a crushed Camden tablet to kill all of the naturally occurring yeasts. We will add brewers' yeast to this demi-john and then compare the quality of the two finished ciders when they are ready (somewhere around Christmas).

Haven't we got lovely toilets at Waxwings, we said, over a cup of tea.

Notes:
Use a range of apples including crab apples
Quarter or half apples before crushing (scratting)
Press crushed apples and collect juice
Wild yeasts are unpredictable and so use brewers yeast
Two fermentations will be necessary
Bottle into wire topped bottles and keep cool

For apple juice collect juice from single varieties and freeze in tetrapaks

hornet (vespa crabro)

Lunchtime at Cordwood and I went to pick an apple. Something had hollowed out an apple on one of our Greensleeves cordons and as I touched the empty apple a very large, unsteady wasp tumbled out, followed by another. It was a European Hornet - a first for us at Cordwood.

European Hornet (Vespa crabro)

The Hornet is larger than a wasp and is usually found in woodland. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust tells me that their numbers are increasing.

Hornets look alarming and have a sting like that of a wasp - but bigger. For this reason, the mild mannered hornet is feared and has been persecuted. It is protected in some EU countries. For much of the year they are the gardeners' friend, consuming invertebrate pests. But they can devastate beehives and so are feared by beekeepers.

Hornets also have a love of fruit, especially apples. As I discovered.

They are impressive beasts, if cumbersome in flight and ponderous as they gnaw apples.

But wonderful and welcome visitors. I hope to take better photos than this snatched snap as they work their way through the rest of our meagre apple crop!!

grafting apples

The orchard at Cordwood was planted some time after the site was developed around 1947. The trees are probably sixty years old ... and some were in very poor condition when we finally released them from the yoke of choking brambles, blackthorn, oak and cherry that had engulfed them.

We have cleared the ground beneath them, mulched with manure and pruned to reinvigorate them. The trees are all 'standards' and too tall to allow the fruit to be picked easily. They may not respond to treatment and so we have a backup strategy in order that we can retain the heritage of the orchard if the trees have to be removed: grafting.

We bought M9 dwarf rooting stock apple trees and grafted 'scions' or twigs from the old trees onto the dwarf rooting stocks. The warm weather caught us out and the process had to be rushed. It was stressful too, in its own small, unimportant way, cutting V shapes in the scions and marrying them to corresponding  cuts on the dwarf rooting stocks in the  unseasonably hot March sun. Each new graft was bound tightly with raffia and planted in specially prepared ground on the allotment.

This was our first attempt at taking grafts and may not be successful. The scions were a little too dry and the root stocks were just past bud burst .. which is when they should be used for optimum results.

Our hands were so busy during this procedure that we forgot to take photos. Here's the little trees in the ground, rather like a hospital ward for trees, with each having its own bandage.

We will monitor our successes and failures and record results over the coming weeks.

preparing for cordoned apples .. and improving the apiary

Steadily working through the never ending list of jobs.

I've set my sights on creating a cordon fruit hedge that will separate the orchard from the planned vegetable garden.

We already have ten cordon apple and pear trees at our allotment and hope to transplant these in the coming weeks while the plants are still dormant.

I'm working across the twenty two metres of the line of the planned hedge with my mattock, removing roots and creating a wide band of cleared earth.
Halfway there!! Hope to finish this part tomorrow.

Next week I hope to dig out post holes, concrete tannalised posts in and I might even get to digging a trench that will be lined with compost and a little well-rotted manure, ready for the transplanted trees.

Trev's job list is different and he's clearing  away rampant hedge in the apiary area at the top of the site. The brown earth shows how far across the neglected hedge had encroached.

This wider, cleared area will allow Linda and him to do some technical jiggerypokery that he did explain about artificial swarms. Apparently you can prevent bees from pouring energy into swarming and setting up new colonies by this practice.

You'd better watch this space or follow Linda's site 'Bees and Beyond' for more clarity over the coming weeks and months!!

crab apple

Sometimes considered to be a native, the crab apple (malus sylvestris) is a lovely addition to deciduous woodland. It has attractive blossom and yields pretty 'mini-apples' in the autumn that can be enjoyed by wildlife or used for jams or cider. They are unusually high in pectin and so a few are often added to low-pectin fruits such as strawberries during jam making.

Some varieties of crab are 'universal pollinators' for apples.

There is a range of cultivars, but we have chosen one whose seed was collected locally from pips collected from Brierley Country Park. It has been grown on to this two year 'feathered whip' size. It is not a cultivar and so has not been grafted onto a root stock.

With luck, it will go on to be a small tree of around 3 metres tall.

It is the first tree planted on site by us and I am filled with excitement about the prospect of it being joined by many more trees as we develop the site over the coming years.

pears

Small gardens can grow big crops of fruit.

In 2003 we planted the first cordon dessert apples on our allotment. They are now well-established and provide us with fruit from August to April.

In 2008 we added two more, this time cooking apples: Nottinghamshire's famous Bramley seedling was one.

And now, in 2010 we have added two self-fertile pears: Emile d'Heyst and Invincible. Pears do not have the same keeping quality as apples, and so might be considered less useful than apples. But these varieties should be cropping through to November and so although we won't be able to keep them, it should mean that we eat fewer of our apples that do keep well, thus extending the season for our own stored, organic fruit. And fresh pears are wonderful eating!

Our cold winter has dragged into a cold spring. I am hoping we get to see apple blossom as lovely as this within the month!