An obsession…?

So what do you do the day after finding out what your apples are? Go and pick some apples of course!

So accompanied by my crack apple picking team (aka the kids) we set off for the plot, via the local fruit and veg shop to pick up some more plastic trays. I grabbed five trays, thinking I’d stock up on some whilst there were some there. We get to the plot and I ask the team how many should we take to fill up – “all of them of course!”

Unfortunately it was another cold day and it wasn’t long before we were regretting leaving the gloves at home.

“Dad, I’m cold”

The kids worked on a system where the oldest picked them and the youngest put them in the trays for him, which worked quite well until they were both too cold to pick apples.

I’m copying these teeth when we do the pumpkin carving!

Fortunately by this stage we’d picked the 5 trays of apples – about 150 ish apples – so it was time to leave. With plenty of apples still left on the trees.

At home, Mrs D was busy peeling and coring as many apples as she could fit into out largest saucepan for another batch of apples sauce destined for the freezer, from the ‘ugly’ pile – those that weren’t likely to keep. I started giving the ‘good’ apples a quick wipe and the kids set to work wrapping them in newspaper so they could go into storage.

After they were placed in their various boxes I then took them to the ‘store room’. One of the advantages to living in an old terraced house is the old outhouse (aka outside toilet). Having removed the toilet a number of years back now (thanks Dad!) it functions as our general store room which at the moment is over run with apples (over 250 now), couple of sacks of potatoes and a couple of nets of onions.

That bike’s not coming out any time soon!

The pumpkins Mum and Dad grew for us are arriving this week too. Despite pointing out the price of the Crown Prince in Waitrose there are few takers so I said we’d have what ever is left. I may regret this…

Blog changes
Some of you may have noticed a few changes with the layout to the blog. I’ve just been playing with a few things, adding and taking away different things. Hopefully all for the better. Now I just have to go and index all my previous posts… Hard to believe I spend most of my days playing with metadata and indexing isn’t it!

And the answer is….

… Belle de Boskoop! Probably.

For those of you wondering what I’m on about, I took the family to RHS Harlow Carr today for their Taste of Autumn event. On what proved to be the coldest day of the autumn so far (aka bloody freezing!), the kids were amused by the monster trail and seemed not to notice the cold, whilst Mrs D and I found a sheltered spot and drank hot soup.

The monster trail just happened to take us via the apple identification greenhouse being carried out by the Northern Fruit Group. After filling in some paperwork to let them know everything I knew about the apple – it didn’t take long to fill in! – the first suggestion was Belle de Boskoop. After various consultations with books and a comparison with the ones on display it was agreed that this was what it probably was. Despite the fact it didn’t look much like the one they had on display, mine being far redder.

Northern Fruit Group version

My version of Belle de Boskoop

Still they seemed impressed with my apples and said it would be good to graft some trees from them as mine are very red and appeared to be a good apple, so place your orders now!

After a bit of searching once I got home, apparently they’re somewhat sort after and much more common in mainland Europe, having originated in Holland. They also make a very good apple pie – which I will selflessly be making and eating, purely in the interests of research of course – store very well, mellowing around Christmas time to make them edible as an ‘eater’. Which is what I was hoping for and well worth looking after those in storage!

The apple display was good, with a wonderful smell and they even had some apples for sale – we declined.

After the kids finished the monster trail we headed for Betty’s Tea Shop (the branch at the Gardens), took one look at the queue, bought a couple of cakes to keep the kids happy and headed home, with the heater on to defrost. Sadly there seemed to be far more people in the Tea Shop than the Gardens.

Apples, apples, apples

Why do I have two plots on two different sites? It’s a question I’m often asked and one I wonder about myself at times. But this is the time of year when I remember why: apples.

It’s reached mid-October and I was beginning to worry about my apples on plot no. 2 going ‘walkabout’. So I thought I’d pick one or two. Or 150 or so. And after giving another 30+ away I’d say I’ve probably got as many again still to pick.

They’re still a bit reluctant to come away from the tree even this late in the year, but when they get home they undergo careful inspection and are separated into the good and ugly – the bad already having being left on the compost heap.

The Good

 The good I’m giving a quick clean and then wrapping them individually in newspaper and storing them in trays.

The bad are hanging around waiting to be used up in whatever recipes we can find – the ‘bad’ are those with any blemishes on that probably won’t keep so well. We’re going to be busy this weekend!

The Ugly

So far on the list of recipes are: oatmeal, apple and cinnamon cookies, spiced apple chutney and apple fruit leather. Any further suggestions gratefully received. This is the point where my planned apple press would have come in handy, but alas finances didn’t allow for that this year.

Still none the wiser as to what they are but we’re off to Harlow Carr on either 23 or 24 October when (hopefully!) all will be revealed.

What’s my apple tree – part 2

Glorious day on Saturday, but sadly I was a bit under the weather and didn’t want to stray too far from the house. Feeling much better on Sunday, it proceeded to throw it down with rain all day.

Anyhow, moving on… Some people have their dog blogs but me and the mad cat lady of Sheffield seem to prefer cats, so after months of promising the kids some kittens and a tip off from said mad cat lady we’re now the proud owners of two bundles of fur. Besides using the vegetable rack as a climbing frame and knocking the squashes on the floor one of them also seemed to take a liking to the apple I picked from my unknown tree, providing a nice background for a close up of the apple as requested:

Gingerbread (the cat) and ???

I picked this a few days ago (the apple!), but I wouldn’t say it came from the tree easily – supposedly one of the signs they’re ready. A few days later my guinea pig (the wife) and I had a taste:

It’s quite juicy but sharp with it. It’s not inedible, but whether it’s an eater or a cooker the jury is still out. According to my Dad, brown pips are a sign it’s ready though. So still none the wise. I’m looking for a local apple day to take them along to to see if anyone else has any ideas???

I also have another problem: there are a lot of apples on each tree, storing them could be a problem. The outhouse is largely full of potatoes and onions and without a serious clear out it’s not going to get many apples in it. There’s no heating in our bedroom though and space on top of the wardrobe…

Gratuitous cat picture follows:

Florence (front) and Gingerbread (back) lying on top of the shallots

Squash Review
Now Autumn has definitely arrive I think my squashes are over now. They did OK this year. I grew Defender and Goldie for my courgettes. Defender was its usual prolific self, but Goldie was very disappointing really. It produced lots of smaller courgettes – no bad thing – but with thick bitter skin. Don’t think I’ll be growing them again.

I grew Gemstore for the first time – this looks a bit like a round courgette but has flesh more like a pumpkin, a light yellow/orange colour. The plant has a kind of restrained, sprawling habit and the fruits are a great size to use up in just one meal and are prolific – 26 off two plants! The skins are also quite thick so I’m assuming they’ll store well – they’re coping quite well with the cats knocking them over as they clamber up the vegetable rack to get to the table.

I only grew Crown Prince for my large pumpkins this year, which is a bit disappointing as I do like the sight of a bright orange pumpkin on the plot. However, all is not lost there as we have several growing down at my Grandads – by all accounts there’s a whole lot of different pumpkins down there that are likely to be coming our way as I don’t think the rest of the family eat many. I only managed to get three fruits from two plants, and one of them is quite small, but hopefully the taste will make up for that. All three of them feel quite solid though so hopefully a good amount of flesh of them.

If you look carefully, one of the cats is at the top of the picture trying to get in on the action.

What’s my apple tree?

Any guesses? The apples are largely red, they were much bigger than this last year, they’re not ready yet (late September) and in previous years we’ve largely cooked with them as they’ve not tasted so good straight off the tree – but maybe should have left them a bit longer???

And I’ve got another just like it behind where I was taking the photo from, so I’ll be needing to find somewhere to store apples soon! The flash shows that it’s getting darker earlier and there’s not going to be many evening visits left :>(

Look at the hedge on that!

The Allotment Association was fortunate enough to get a grant for a hedge cutter earlier this year and I finally got my hands on it a couple of weeks ago. Harder work than I thought it would be – truth be told my arms ached for several days after, but that may have something to do with my nice comfy office job and not being used to manual labour! However, I’m quite pleased with the results. Even the hedge inside the plot isn’t looking too bad, but you’ll have to take my word for that!

Nice bulbs!
Those of you struggling with onions and garlic this year, look away now!

Plot no. 1

Plot no. 2

First onions

Shallots

Garlic, almost ready for plaiting

This is the ‘reward’ for our summer up here, apart from a few weeks in June it’s been wet enough for them to grow very well, possibly my best year yet. Well for the white onions anyway, reds are a bit disappointing. The kitchen has been home to a tray full of shallots and another of garlic drying for the last couple of weeks too – as it’s been far too wet to dry them outside. It does mean we end up waking to an onion/garlic aroma though and the bad news is I haven’t dug up many of the onions yet…

Elsewhere on plot no. 1 the sunflowers are looking good, although they may be getting a bit too big to support themselves now and they could do with a bit more sun so they actually come out!

However, after that it all starts going downhill… The bottom of the plot has been ‘lost’ again and will need to be reclaimed so I can eventually get the greenhouse up.

Erm, wildlife area…

There should be a greenhouse here!

Continuing on the weed theme…

There’s some Brussels in here

After a couple of hours I ‘re-discovered’ this bed, reclaiming it from the weeds, planting some Purple Sprouting Broccoli (a bit late I know), giving them all some seaweed meal and re-netting the whole bed. Sadly no pics of this hard work, but I’m hoping to mulch the bed with leafmold later today to keep the weeds down – hopefully with camera in attendance.

Up on plot no. 2, the lettuce are going to seed (must try successional sowing…), the courgettes (aka marrows – must not go on holiday in summer again) are growing like mad, getting plenty of peas (all of which are eaten before ever seeing a saucepan), even some carrots (!), beetroot (which makes a great chocolate beetroot cake!), french beans are coming along well but could do with some sun and the pumpkin patch is giving the bindweed a run for its money.

The apple trees are loaded with fruit too, although a bit small still.

 And finally, the reason why I can get away with spending many a long hour on the plots…

… keeping Mrs D supplied in sweetpeas!

A trip to Grandad’s

Needing to pick up some of our camping gear from my parents, a day trip to a somewhat parched Northamptonshire was in order. This also gave us a chance to check on the pumpkins I gave to my Mum to plant out in the ‘family allotment’.

In reality this is an approximate 3.5 acre field adjoining my Grandad’s house that has been used for many things over the last 30 years from strawberries to potatoes, but now Grandad is well into his 90s there is probably only around a quarter of it used now. And whilst he is still pretty active with his growing he doesn’t need much room for just his stuff so it now functions as a space for my Mum and Dad to grow their veg, as well as Mum’s sister and brother. And right at the end of the field is a 30+ year old orchard with a mix of about a dozen trees. And these apple, pear, plum and damson trees are prolific. Given there is far too much for Grandad, there’s nothing he likes more than sending us off with as much as we can carry!

Pumpkin patch

As you can see it’s doing quite well! There are approximately six different squashes in here: Tom Fox, Crown Prince, Gemstore, Goldie, Defender and some sort of butternut squash. There may be another pumpkin in there as well, but no-one’s quite sure and it’s kinda difficult to tell now they’ve grown in every direction. The Tom Fox is the ‘traditional’ orange pumpkin which my Mum is looking after to grow a pumpkin for each of her 3 grandchildren. These have recently been ‘written’ on with each of their names to grow into the skins, which are hiding under the leaves, and they are roughly all the same size of just a bit larger than a basketball. And at this rate it’s doubtful where either of the two younger grandchildren are going to be able to lift them up.

The Gemstore and Crown Prince are there as a backup for our plants and the courgettes are there for who ever can eat them – which given the size of some of them and the number going straight on the compost heap, isn’t that many people.

The Orchard

Although it’s still a bit early in the year we still came away with a dozen or so apples and a load of plums – having sadly forgotten the names of both of them. However the rest of the trees are loaded with fruit so we’re looking forward to a return visit at some point in the future and will hopefully be purchasing an apple press to take along too so we can make use of the ones that have fallen on the ground too.

The trees aren’t that tall but are just right for climbing in though:

And one of the trees also supplies the family with mistletoe:

A quick browse through the raspberry patch and the greenhouse and our haul was complete:

Although to be honest, we have no need for the marrows and left them behind!