Fruit - growing your own
How's This For Apples?
As regular Readers know, I try to grow our own vegetables at least. Though, technically, both runner beans and tomatoes are actually fruit. There isn't that much space here, but we manage quite a bit. Next year, if I survive this winter unscathed (SAD) I may look into strawberries. We have the old strawberry tower, I may seek out a few seeds & try raising them. A while bacl I did try a couple of spur-fruiting apple trees. We got blossom, which was gorgeous, but severe 'bleah' took over & they died of lack of watering during a very hot summer. Maybe I could try again, & plant them in larger pots.
Anyhow, should you have never tasted really fresh apples, straight from the tree, & wonder quite what I am on about, Try here - George Mobiot on Supermarket Fruit & their Alternatives in the Guardian. He has a point, he really does have a point, though I've yet to come across an Egremont Russet in Asda - probably too downmarket an area for 'Connoiseur varieties'. Besides which, there is definitely one variety of Russet apple which, if eaten when ripe, is delicious. & I got that from a Green Grocer years ago.
I'd also recommend Ashmead's Kernel, in juice form at least. There's a local apple grower, Hill Farm Orchards, Swanmore, Hants, who grow & produce several single variety juices, we reckon the Ashmead's Kernel is the nicest, though the Cox's Orange Pippen juice isn't bad either, neither is the Hampshire Cloudy Apple Juice. We first came across this at a Farmers' Market, but a green grocer locally also stocks it.
For those who really want to get to know their apples I would thoroughly recommend a visit to West Dean Gardens Apple Affair. They grow a wide range of different varieties of apple, to keep the breeds alive as much as anthing, and have stalls selling them, with tasters so you know what you're buying. Other stalls sell juices, ciders, home made cakes, boar sausages, pig roast, etc etc. It is a Good day out, & you can wander off round the gardens, which are quite extensive, to walk off all you may have eaten, or just to take in the views.
If you have sufficient land you can also make a note of your preferred varieties, then order plants of the same, to grow your own. You need never buy those rubbishy Golden Delicious so beloved of supermarket chains ever again!
For Readers who don't live that near West Sussex, there are other apple growing places dotted around the country. Go Google, or try Kent, Hereford & Worcester, & Somerset, these being the principal apple growing counties, even in these globalised days.
Well, a woman can dream. At least I have the blackberries & crab apples from yesterday afternoon's forraging. Wonder if it'll stop raining sufficiently to go out this afternoon? I've already been out to count the morning glories, 8 blue - 9 purple, & check that the water butt link is working, which it is, thanks. We now have two nearly full butts, rather than on full one & the rest lost down the drain!
'K, nuff already. I really am going now!
As regular Readers know, I try to grow our own vegetables at least. Though, technically, both runner beans and tomatoes are actually fruit. There isn't that much space here, but we manage quite a bit. Next year, if I survive this winter unscathed (SAD) I may look into strawberries. We have the old strawberry tower, I may seek out a few seeds & try raising them. A while bacl I did try a couple of spur-fruiting apple trees. We got blossom, which was gorgeous, but severe 'bleah' took over & they died of lack of watering during a very hot summer. Maybe I could try again, & plant them in larger pots.
Anyhow, should you have never tasted really fresh apples, straight from the tree, & wonder quite what I am on about, Try here - George Mobiot on Supermarket Fruit & their Alternatives in the Guardian. He has a point, he really does have a point, though I've yet to come across an Egremont Russet in Asda - probably too downmarket an area for 'Connoiseur varieties'. Besides which, there is definitely one variety of Russet apple which, if eaten when ripe, is delicious. & I got that from a Green Grocer years ago.
I'd also recommend Ashmead's Kernel, in juice form at least. There's a local apple grower, Hill Farm Orchards, Swanmore, Hants, who grow & produce several single variety juices, we reckon the Ashmead's Kernel is the nicest, though the Cox's Orange Pippen juice isn't bad either, neither is the Hampshire Cloudy Apple Juice. We first came across this at a Farmers' Market, but a green grocer locally also stocks it.
For those who really want to get to know their apples I would thoroughly recommend a visit to West Dean Gardens Apple Affair. They grow a wide range of different varieties of apple, to keep the breeds alive as much as anthing, and have stalls selling them, with tasters so you know what you're buying. Other stalls sell juices, ciders, home made cakes, boar sausages, pig roast, etc etc. It is a Good day out, & you can wander off round the gardens, which are quite extensive, to walk off all you may have eaten, or just to take in the views.
If you have sufficient land you can also make a note of your preferred varieties, then order plants of the same, to grow your own. You need never buy those rubbishy Golden Delicious so beloved of supermarket chains ever again!
For Readers who don't live that near West Sussex, there are other apple growing places dotted around the country. Go Google, or try Kent, Hereford & Worcester, & Somerset, these being the principal apple growing counties, even in these globalised days.
Well, a woman can dream. At least I have the blackberries & crab apples from yesterday afternoon's forraging. Wonder if it'll stop raining sufficiently to go out this afternoon? I've already been out to count the morning glories, 8 blue - 9 purple, & check that the water butt link is working, which it is, thanks. We now have two nearly full butts, rather than on full one & the rest lost down the drain!
'K, nuff already. I really am going now!