Our apple crop has been quite modest this year. Of the mature trees, the Laxton's Fortune (a smallish eater) did very well. But the Bramley and the James Grieve had very little to show for themselves. Today I picked all the remaining Blenheim Orange, one of our favourites, which fruited moderately well. There have not been enough apples to juice this year but we will have plenty to dehydrate to produce a very palatable snack as well as to continue to eat fresh for a while.
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| Blenheim Orange, would probably not make the grade for supermarkets but, in my view, one of the tastiest of apples: very crisp, juicy and on the sharp side. |
We have a number of other apple and pear trees that have been more recently planted but are not established enough to fruit in any quantity yet. The young Gala apple tree did, however, produce its first two apples this summer. They looked flawless on the tree and I was able to keep a check on them every day as I went about the daily tasks, waiting for the time when they were ripe for picking. One afternoon one of them was suddenly missing leaving a solitary apple. As we did not actually witness the apple being taken I would not name names of course. But we have our private suspicions.
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| Spice, our Golden Retriever, relaxing (not far from the Gala apple tree). |
We foraged some apples on Saturday, and I wonder if they were Blenheim Orange - they look very like yours. They were quite big too, we can't work out why nobody has picked them before now. They tasted good - but I stewed some of them for dessert today. We had a James Grieve tree in a Manse garden thirty years ago. I loved the fruit
ReplyDeleteWhen you say 'foraging' you don't mean scrumping? At your age! Blenheim Orange can grow into big apples. James Grieve is first rate but noted for its poor storing ability. Best eaten straight off the tree.
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