Fruit from the Orchard

The fruit trees have been prolific this year.

Masses of Plums – Czar and Victoria, now jammed and chutnied. Pears, Conference and Williams, which are good all- rounders for eating and cooking, are stored in boxes in the shed until we’ve time to freeze what we can’t eat now.

The flavour of home grown, freshly picked fruit has a quality that really can’t be matched by those bought in the supermarket. I read somewhere that the average supermarket apple is a year old, which, if true would explain why they are so often so tasteless, texture-less and uninspiring.

We have made a good few pound jars of apple chutney and frozen some of the remainder for the winter. Good with yogurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Crab apple jelly from the aptly named Malus ‘Gorgeous’ is ready to be stored away and is a tempting rose tinted pinky red.

Other apple and pear trees are well laden with boughs bending down towards the ground with the weight of the fruit.

This year we hired an apple press and spent a jolly afternoon with our neighbours and their children making bottles of fresh juice to share. A good time was had by all. Any we can’t drink, share or store we’ll attempt to make into cider!

Our apple trees are all common varieties which we have bought locally, as and when we saw them. We didn’t do any preparatory research, but luckily what they share is, that despite our cold, wet clay soil is they’re all good do-ers.
We have Egremont Russet, a local variety which keeps well in a cool space (like the caravan)
Secondly, Cox Orange Pippin, which is sweet, versatile and reliable.
Worcester Pearmain, bright red and crisp, and Bramley, a cooker which freezes well either cut into chunks and briefly blanched, or as a purée for sauce.

The pear, a Conference, is popular with our dog. He eats them off the tree!

I think we’ll have a second crop of figs which will be a pleasant surprise. We have already enjoyed about 25 big succulent fruits from the tree. It is planted in an old metal water tank in a sunny sheltered spot next to the Polytunnel. As the books tell you, containing the root growth certainly seems to encourage fruiting. The variety is Brown Turkey . Not unusual but a good sturdy tree which withstands low winter temperatures. I’ve found it likes a good top dressing of garden compost, and a watering with seaweed feed now and then. Otherwise, it looks after itself pretty much.
It is a real luxury to have our own luscious figs ripening at a steady pace of about a couple at a time. Freshly picked and still warm from the sun they’re a juicy treat for breakfast.