Friday 28 September 2018

APPLE HARVEST 2018

Over the weekend and again on Wednesday 26
September we spent time in the Community Orchard harvesting some of the apples and tasting them.  The sun shone on both occasions and the Orchard itself is looking very good now that the grass has started to grow again.
A lot of the apples are small this year (due to the drought and extreme heat) and sadly a higher percentage than usual have had disease (scab and brown rot) and many have had bird damage which means that many fruits will not store well.
However many are good. The Bramley Seedling have cropped well for the first time this year. The Newton Wonder , another culinary apple, also is cropping well....these will be picked later as they should be ripe mid October and hopefully will store
Of the eaters, Sunset and Herefordshire Russet proved to be very popular as did Fiesta and Ellison's Orange. Other apples were brought too for tasting....in particular Jupiter (parents Cox's Orange Pippin and Starking) and Bel de Boscoop (Dutch D/P) were delicious.
We will continue to pick as the fruits ripen....some apples will go to St Peter's Church for the Harvest Festival, and a group of children from Limpsfield Primary School will come to pick and taste too. Some apples store well, some are frozen or used in cakes and puddings of course but this year we are trying dried apple and pear.....a dessicator makes this a very easy process and they should last well into the New Year
...some of the Committee

visitors from Hurst Green Garden Club and LODHS

Herefordshire Russet

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