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I was rather disappointed that so few apples had set on our trees this year, but the nice chap on the plot next-door-but-one to mine says he's had none at all and no pears either, so perhaps we've done better than I thought.
Anyway, we had our first apple of the year yesterday a Devonshire Quarrenden.
It had fallen from the tree when I found it, so it can be excused for being a little mushy, but the flavour was good - sharp but not overly so, and a touch perfumy. There are two more still on the tree, so hopefully those will be even better.
Anyway, we had our first apple of the year yesterday a Devonshire Quarrenden.
It had fallen from the tree when I found it, so it can be excused for being a little mushy, but the flavour was good - sharp but not overly so, and a touch perfumy. There are two more still on the tree, so hopefully those will be even better.
pleased
I mean, I like rain as much as the next gardener, but this year has just been silly in that regard.
At least the runner beans are producing something like normally - I froze four portions of them yesterday because we can't eat them fast enough :) Fresh is better than frozen of course, but frozen is better than wasted and this way we'll still have some when the fresh ones are finished. The brassicas seem to be finally getting their act together a bit too.
The Williams has only four or five small fruit on it, the Cox very few too. The Bramley has quite a lot of small apples on it, but I doubt they'll come to much. There are hardly any Victoria plums, and the Conference has but a few scrawny offerings. The Comice is pretty sparse too.
I only hope we get a few blackberries!
I did pick some blackberries too yesterday, enough for a small crumble for tea. Not as many as if they hadn't cut back the brambles at the back, but still. All they seem to have achieves with that is to destroy this year's fruit crop - the branches are back as thick as ever, just without blossom. Silly hooters should have taken out the roots if they were serious about it.
And the thought of a perfumy apple is lovely. We get most of our apples from California and they're so scientifically bred that there's almost no aroma.
:) We had a visitor from the US once when we were living in Bishops Lydeard in Somerset. We took him to the pub in the village. I can't remember exactly how old it is now, but he walked in, looked around in wonder and said "This pub is older than my country!"
Not a good year for fruit, no.
At least the runner beans are cropping normally! :)
On the other hand, the fern has been happy this year. :-)
Thanks, I didn't know that. May have to experiment some come winter.
I 'went and sat out there' for about five minutes. By then, my arm was hard and swollen, and very painful. Breathing started to get difficult, and I was called back into the room pretty damn' smartish. "Oh dearie me, you seem to be allergic to apples!" No shit, Sherlock.
As the years have gone by I've discovered more and more things that cause itchy throat and ears (eustachian tube I suppose), and even things that I can't touch, like raw parsnips. Bah.
A few months back a friend directed me to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome
I now know that it's not 'just me', and it's become a recognised phenomenenon. Yay. It's good to be able to point people to it so I can say I'm not making it up, look, I've got a known thingummy - but I'm much rather someone came up with a cure.. *Sigh*
The runner beans are doing well, at least .
That's jolly kind of you, but I'm sure I can find one here easily enough :)
That's interesting - we like our apple sauce fairly chunky, so i just chop the apples a bit - I've never thought of grating them!
There's a cherry tree on the verge outside my house, but I never saw much fruit on that at all this year. Normally the birds eat them and leave a carpet of stones on the pavement, but I haven't even seen much evidence of avian nomming.