Natural Apple Storage Tips!

If you've followed this blog for a while you'll no doubt know that I'm slightly obsessed with apples. I'm not quite University challenge level, but I do like to think of them as a subject I know a fair bit about. 

 

I also love this time of year, harvesting them from trees I planted is just a dream. It's also lovely as I get to harvest them with my children who are also obsessed with fruit (but more about eating it!).

A question I get asked a lot is about apple storage and how I get my apples to keep for so long. Especially when I tell people I can get them to store until June some years. 

A Tour Of Our Abundant Organic Orchard - In It's 10th year

It's 10 years since we planted the orchard. When we moved here I was digging holes by head torch to get them in and our eldest was just a few weeks old. It's beautiful to walk round it now and see the sheer abundance it provides us with now. 

This video is only short (about 10 minutes), doesn't have me talking and just shows our little orchard in all it's Autumn glory. 

Let me know what you think. 

How has your orchard cropped this year?

 

Trouble With My Damson Trees

 So if you have read this blog for any length of time you'll know that I love damsons. When ripe they're up there with some of my favourite fruits. One reason why I put about another 14 in this year in our new hedge in the second field. 

Unfortunately, other than the one in the photo above (a Merryweather - my favourite as it is a "freestone" damson), the others don't seem to be doing so well in the orchard that I planted 8 years ago. 

Work In an Orchard Is Never Over

 I was walking with the children on one of our Lockdown walks the other day, and the route goes through a commercial cider orchard. Very different to what we have, the trees are planted at different spaces, they're pruned and harvested differently, but we could see that the work they do in these places is a constantly evolving space. 

New Tree planted to fill a gap

They had young trees filling in gaps in the rows and some older trees that had been ripped out. it looked like they had started pruning as well - must be quite a daunting task with these fields being about 10 acres or more! 

Planting Plums For Self-sufficiency

Thought I'd share a short video I made on the varieties of plum I've settled on this year.

Hopefully by having all these different varieties it should mean that we spread the season out as much as we can where we live. I'm looking for them to crop the whole time from mid July right through to the start of October, but I know this will all depend on frosts and other factors!

Let me know what you think of the video.

What other fruit do you try to have a large selection of to make sure you get a harvest?

Barley Wood Walled Garden

Last weekend my wife and I managed to have a few days together without the children!

It felt very odd at first but we soon got used to it! The first day was sweltering with high temperatures so we didn't feel like doing much. We were staying near Bath and had planned on visiting a lake but when we got there we couldn't see it for all the safety notices! So with a quick search on google I found a walled garden to go visit that was fairly near. 

Apple Diversity

I'm late in "summer" pruning my cordon apples this year. But as I trimmed them back I was amazed by the variety and quality of fruit in this trained hedge. 

It's a great year for apples and for the first time my main orchard is loaded with fruit, as are my cordon trees in the veg garden.

Wassail!

For one night a year our village turns truly pagan! 

These are pictures from last weekend as I've not been 100% this week and the kids and wife have been the same (full of cold and sore throats). 

The wassail was really quite eventful though. 

Lets just say that health and safety got left at the door. In fact it might not have even seen the door...

 There must have been three hundred people meeting in the village centre and then walking down to the community orchards with flaming torches. The guy giving the speech at the start even set his hat on fire! There were Morris dancers as well as entertainment to start with as well.

To see the flaming torches stretched out for half a mile and lighting the whole way was impressive. In the past I should imagine it was really something to look forward to.

We banished the evil spirits and secured a good harvest for this year, they used fireworks instead of shotguns to get he bad spirits out of the trees. Unfortunately they let them off about 5ft away from my friends and me and made 10 children cry - nevermind!

It was certainly an eventful evening and great fun to meet up with my friends in the village. This has real potential as the kids get older where we might be able to have more than one drink! We'll certainly be going again, but I'll be a bit more alert when the fireworks are being lit!

Do you Wassail where you are?

Pear Rust

Walking around the orchard the other day, whist snuffling apples with the girls, I noticed orange spots on my pear trees

I knew straight away what it was - Pear Rust.

But it got me thinking, it's only meant to be able to complete it's life cycle with a juniper bush and I've not seen any close by. I'll have to keep an eye out when visiting neighbours in future as it's a shame to have my pear trees affected by this. Apparently if you remove and burn affected leaves from the juniper you can help reduce the rust on your pear trees, hopefully breaking the cycle and getting rid of it. I don;t think it's too detrimental to the tree but it can cause canker which will weaken the tree.

Anyone else have pear rust on their trees? 

What's the worst thing affecting your fruit trees this autumn?

Abundance Of Fruit

Unfortunately it's not here but at my parents farm. I went for the first time in two months on Friday (I know I'm a bad son!) and the little orchard I planted years ago is doing brilliantly. Plenty of early fruit.

 My mum, the girls and me walked round eating different apples (discoveries and Worcesters) plums and greengages. I had to slow the girls down at one point or they'd get bad bellies!

 The early fruit seems to be doing the best in there this year although there is plenty of fruit for later in the season. I need to get the food drier out and start drying some again, and maybe think about attempting to can some! 

Has everyone else got a heavy crop of early apples?

Reverend W Wilkes

We're starting to get some apples and other fruit ready in the orchard and cordons.

Mum brought over a big bag of discovery apples but a few cookers are ready as well. Warmers King is normally the first we eat but this year we've also got some Reverend W Wilkes from my line of cordons. 

IIt's a slightly acidic cooking apple that is ready to use when it's slightly premature.  This one lifted off the tree with only the slightest bit of weight behind it. Like all early apples it won't keep,  but I've got plenty for that purpose, having an apple ready at the same time as the blackberries has it's advantages.

Its a spur bearer and slow grower, so perfect for a cordon if you're limited on space.

What early cooking apples do you have growing?

Orchard Trees Mulched

I've managed to put some muck around the base of my trees this week. Some people don't like to do this too much as it can encourage leafy growth at the expense of fruit, but while the trees are young and establishing I think it's a good thing.  I might add a final mulch of wood chip on top to help keep the weeds at bay around the base of the tree.

Half a barrow of muck a tree

How the bridge graft I did in 3013 looks now

I also looked at the bridge graft I did a couple of years ago when I had a tree ringed barked by rabbits. The tree is still growing well and both of my "bridges" are alive and looking healthy, they've gotten thicker and grown with the tree and the wounds have callused over nicely. Hopefully as the tree grows it will engulf this and in a few years time you won't be able to tell. 

Does anyone else mulch their fruit trees with well rotted muck? Do you think it makes any difference?

Trading Skills - Orchard Renovation

My friend Sean who did the plastering when we renovated the living room, didn't want payment when he did the work for me, instead he wanted to have some favours in the bank for work he wanted done at his place. I almost prefer this trading of skills rather than handing over money - the trouble is I assumed he'd want my carpentry skills!

 Sunday morning I went to his to begin to pay him back. In the recent storms he had a plum tree half blown over and caught up in a pine tree next to it. This is in his little 1 acre orchard that's not had any work done to the trees in a long while.

The tree, although not massive, was in a quite a dangerous place as the weight of them was being supported by a few branches of this other tree. It had to come down with my help or fall down sometime soon.

 Although I have a chainsaw I'm no expert, unlike my tree surgeon brother, but luckily I've worked with him enough to know what to do and how to approach the job. I must say that since buying our smallholding my skills with a chainsaw have increased dramatically! 

I slowly worked on the tree making sure I tidied up as I went along, to reduce the number of hazards I was working around, and this way I was just left with the branches that were hung up in the other tree with nothing else obstructing them.

 Then it was a simple matter of a few well placed cuts and letting it fall to the ground. I was quite pleased with myself that it went so well!

 I then logged it up for Sean and left him with a big pile of brash to clean up!

Before I went we set our "tree karma" straight and planted three trees that I had brought with me to replace the one that was cut down. We planted a cherry, pear and apple, the apple. Sean's son Oliver  helped, he seemed to really enjoy digging the holes and getting the trees in - I wonder if he wants to help me plant a couple of hundred willow cuttings?

Problems With Geese

Sometime last year I got given a book on running a smallholding. That's not an unusual gift for me to be given, but later when I was reading it, I came to the section on geese and someone had taped this little note in the section headed "problems with geese"

I've had this pinned up for months now!

I'm sure not if many others have come across this particular problem with geese before, but I've been told it might make keeping them very difficult if I was to purchase them!

So my question to you all is this - what can I put on my young orchard during the summer that will keep the grass down, not eat my young trees and not cause that particularly difficult problem described above?

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today was our first full day here on our little homestead.

There was just the two of us that morning and a rather large bump in my wife's belly. Our life was in boxes all around us, the heating wasn't working right but I was feeling very happy.

We'd managed to buy a smallholding before I was 30 and we'd be able to bring our future children up in the countryside.

Before - although I moved the greenhouse up with us.

Fast forward two years and I'm even happier. We've doubled in size as a family, learnt loads, made new friends, done plenty to the house and gardens, got planning permission for an extension, planted an orchard and this is only the beginning!

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has read and commented on this blog over the past two years. It's been the motivation I've needed to get up and try something different, plan my next big project or look at things differently. I don't think I would have got as much done without it or without reading everyone elses for ideas and inspiration. So thanks again and I hope you all have a good Christmas!

Early Transparent Gage

My little orchard isn't producing much fruit yet as most of the trees are only a year or so old. But the Early Transparent Gage I planted (it was a two year tree that I bought) has got loads of fruit on it.

My little girl likes dragging me down to the orchard to go and pick one that we then share (I bite the stone out for her) also stopping by the raspberries on our way. I've never really had anything to do with gages before but if they all taste as good as this one then I'll be planting some more this winter. They look like they'd be great to bottle if I ever get round to learning how to do it.

Cherry

Well I've eaten my entire cherry crop. Two cherries.

I planted some cherry trees earlier this year and to my surprise when I walked down the field I found these two beauties just asking to be eaten.

I was quite please as this is the first year that they've been in. Now the question is where can I fit in more of these trees - they're a great early fruit and I absolutely love them.

This winter I might have to buy some cherry root stocks and graft my own trees. Does anyone else grow cherry trees?

Orchard Topped

When we moved here I was a little anxious about meeting the one next door neighbour. He'd rented the fields we'd brought for the last 20 years so I was worried about what he'd think with how I was going to run the place.

 Luckily we hit it off straight away and have become good friends. I think he's glad not to have the responsibility so much now (he looks after the land from the "big house" next door as well). There's a farm gate between his garden and my field and many a good tail has been told over it, like generations of country folk before us.

The tree I bridge grafted is doing fine

 He does seem to like the orchard I've planted down below our garden (and quite near to his) and last week he offered to top it for me to keep it looking tidy and to let him try out his topper on his tractor. I wasn't going to say no. All I need to do now is strim around the trees.

Having good neighbours can really make or break the place that you call home (especially ones that don't moan at me for working late!).

Saving A Rabbit Damaged Tree

Or at least trying to...

Rabbit Damage

 Walking around my trees the other day I could see that one had been badly damaged by rabbits (or girdled the term is). They had chewed the bark above the rabbit guard and only a tiny strip on the back remains.
As this tree has only been in a year I could easily replace it, but that's a years growth wasted and the cost of a new tree, so I decided to try and repair it.

Make cuts below and above the damage into the cambium layer

The way the tree had been damaged meant that the sap couldn't flow up the tree anymore but I'd read about using "bridge grafts" to solve this problem -I'd just never tried it. Still nothing ventured...
I first took a couple of small branches from the same tree of last years growth. This was soft and flexible. I then cut a long cut on both ends and a small one on the other sides to make a wedge shape.

I bridge the damage using some small branches from last years growth

In the tree itself I made an incision below the damage and one above. These cuts aren't too deep but expose the cambium layer just below the bark. I then inserted the two "bridges" into these cuts. The books said I could just use one for a tree this size but I decided to go with two in case one didn't work. They are cut slightly long so they have to be bent into position helping to maintain cambium contact once the tape is applied.

The graft taped up, only time will tell to see if I did any good.

I then taped it all up and applied grafting wax to make sure it was sealed. And before I finished I added another rabbit guard on top of the first to help to keep the little buggers away.
I'm not sure whether this will work or not but it was interesting to try. Before I started to learn about grafting I would have assumed there wasn't anything I could do to keep this tree alive. It's nice to learn through doing by using the knowledge I've gained through books - because if you don't ever do what you've read about you haven't really learnt anything! .

Apple Trees Have Arrived

My apple trees arrived last week. Now I'm sure it will be obvious to anyone who reads my blogs that I wasn't ready for them.

My delivery - 27 trees in here

 I had planned just to heel them in. Trouble was the ground was frozen solid. I needed a plan B - I heeled them in in the greenhouse. It's not heated but the ground was still soft so it should keep their roots safe. These trees aren't as big as some I've bought in the past but they all look healthy and as I'm planting them as cordons I want to keep their growth quite small so it might be an advantage.

Heeled in in the green house

Now I've got to prepare their plot, put in three posts with straining wire, and plant them all, should keep me busy for a while - a job over the christmas break I think!