Saturday, 29 August 2015

Apple Season.



Our apple portfolio consists of a Bramley (for cooking), a Jonagold, and this Reine de Reinette above. Both the Bramley and the R de R are covered in fruit; the Jonagold isn't.

The tree above is in the chicken run, which means I visit it every day; this morning I declared the fruit to be RIPE.

The French compare it favourably with the English Cox, but frankly it's nowhere near as good. 

France is not really an apple country, they are far better at producing pears. Pears like the warmth, apples prefer cool.

With all those apples hanging from the tree; I suppose we'd better get eating!





26 comments:

  1. Oh, I love good apples! I envy you your apple trees.

    It's much to hot for apples to grow well here. Or maybe there aren't enough cold days in the winter. In any case, the closest thing we get to "local" apples come from the North Carolina mountains. Those won't start arriving in the markets until next month.

    Cheese and apples are my favorite autumn snack. I'll bet you have wonderful varieties of both! Pears are nice, too.

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    Replies
    1. Cheese with apple is almost always on our lunchtime menu.

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  2. Apple and blackcurrant crumble here tonight . Apples from the Growers' Market this morning and frozen blackcurrants as they grow better in the South Island.

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  3. I envy you your apples...but then I guess we have our lovely mangoes !

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    Replies
    1. It would be nice to grow Mangoes here, but the winters would probably kill them; even Lemon trees have to be taken indoors for winter.

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  4. No apple trees here as yet, but that will be changing in the spring... we can grow Cox's here, can't wait to try one as the GS sings their praises.

    Have to grow a Winesap as well, those are my absolute fave and have grown incredibly difficult to find. A Lady apple and a Granny Smith to round it all out, and for making apple 'bap' (apple cider just on the verge of turning hard, whipped with a bit of cream - something a great aunt taught me to make, it was a fashionable drink when she was a girl).
    All espaliered of course, we haven't room for that many trees otherwise.

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    Replies
    1. We had a Granny Smith but it succumbed to Fire Virus (or somesuch), and died. You'll love the Cox, I still consider it to be the very best apple.

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    2. If you are too far north in the UK to grow Cox(yes deffo the best) Sunset is a pretty good taste-alike and grows much further north.
      Not too keen on Granny Smith but my granddaughter takes one to work everyday. One of our Jonagolds is covered and the other is pathetic! All the other trees are doing extremely well this year. have now lost two quince to quince-blight and am giving up trying.

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    3. Is the Jonagold good? Ours is still young and hasn't yet had a proper crop.

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  5. Replies
    1. How come? They keep doctors at bay, you know!

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  6. My main tree is bursting with fruit - literary hundreds. It is James Grieve, very sweet, the wasps love them and spoil a lot of the fruit, the starlings also love them and I am forever running up the garden to shoo them away.

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    Replies
    1. My people always had JG's in their orchards... delicious.

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  7. Last night I noticed that my neighbor's tree was full of apples and so was the ground underneath. This was a sure sign that the breeze we felt the other day was Mother Nature letting us know that fall is around the corner.

    Have a hunk of good cheese with your apples.

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    Replies
    1. That's what our trees are like; as many on the ground as still up in the branches.

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  8. We are just about to leave for a five week holiday in France ( mainly in the south but a week in Sarlat la Caneda ). Can we expect to encounter blackberries ? Would love to pick some wild blackberries !

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    Replies
    1. Perfect timing for Blackberries! Have a great holiday!

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    2. p.s. That's where we filmed 'The Duallists' (Sarlat). If you haven't seen it, get it when you return to Oz; although I doubt if you'd recognise me... I was much younger and more 'dashing' then.

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    3. Will do ....... and I'm very happy about the blackberries !

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  9. I love mostly all apples , but my favorites are Berlepsch and Calville. I eat 2 apples after breakfast and 2 others in the afternoon. As you noticed an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

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    Replies
    1. I had an uncle who used to eat lots of apples every day. It eventually 'poisoned' him, and his doctor banned him from eating them.

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  10. Gorgeous apples. I lost three apple trees to the flooding rains this spring and early summer and they were fruiting. It was a painful loss.

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