It has been a weekend of harvesting, with apple picking for the cider project being top priority.
Margaret has been lining up crops of apples and we started next door at Chris Smith’s where he has an apple tree and a pear tree. I might tap him up for some pears next year to make some perry, but this year, it was apples we were after.
His tree (a cooker) had a huge crop and there were lot of windfalls on the lawn. Margaret went for the low-hanging fruit while I used my new extending apple picker to get the apples from the top. They were ready for harvest and pulling one down often brought another tumbling.
We filled about five bags for 80kg of apples and I reckon the tree probably yielded around 130kg of fruit this year, judging by those on the floor and those still left. That was a great start and, after a cup of tea, I walked round to the windmill to find Arcadia to see if we could pick his. Margaret had seen him earlier in the week and he’d said to help ourselves.
He had two trees, an eater and a cooker, and he was very keen that we take as many as we wanted. Both trees were laden and he said he’d had all he could use. We picked the eaters first, a really red variety and quite sweet, but bitter like an English eating apple. We picked a full bag of those (20kg) and then filled the barrow with cookers. These were also falling off the tree and we took just enough to fill the barrow (55kg), there were loads left.
As well as chickens and a peacock, he also has a breed of cat which can’t be allowed outside (because it wanders off) and so needs a little house/run alongside the windmill. There were three cats in there - very curious to know what we were up to. They looked a little like Siamese. He also has a pack of dogs, which are used for breeding and one has just had a litter of eight puppies. They are all sold and Margaret went into the house to have a look at them. As well as apples, we also came away with a marrow, so all-in-all a good harvest.
Last night, we went for supper at Pauline and Chris’ and Chris had picked his grapes. He’d got two buckets full and he wondered if my apple press would handle grapes. We agreed to give it a go next day.
This morning, we went to the Crosslands’ to pick their tree. It was another cooker and had massive apples all conveniently close to the ground. I only needed the picker for a couple. We filled fours bags and they were massive apples, some growing end-to-end, so it was almost a double apple. When you picked them, they spring apart and the space between was full of earwigs. Margaret was careful to wear gloves, but was convinced she had an earwig down her bra when she felt something fall out of the tree. We managed 98kg from the Crosslands and there were still plenty left on the tree. So from three picks, we’ve managed 250kg of apples, which I hope will be enough for at least 100 litres of apple juice. The apples are all stored in the summerhouse and we’ll crush and press them in the next couple of weekends. Davina and Laura from work are coming up next weekend and may be drafted in to help with processing.
I gave the press a bit of a dry run today with Chris’ grapes. It showed a few issues with the design and functionality. We needed to cut extra blocks of wood to pack the pressure plate as the screw soon hits the same level as the basket and so won’t move any further down. It was also hard to hold the press in place when exerting real pressure on the screw to squeeze the pulp down hard. After some fiddling, we managed to get about 4.5 litres of grape juice from the two buckets, which must have been close to 50% efficiency. I think we could have got more had I been better prepared and when I took the pulp out, there were still some grapes in there uncrushed. I guess that’s why they tread them and then press them.
Later, I cut some bigger blocks of wood to pack the pressure plate and also greased the screw with Vaseline to help the handle turn more easily. Next week, I’ll screw the press to a pallet, which should give us a good solid base to be able to turn the handle without the press moving about. Full report next week, no doubt.
Finally, the last picking of the day was sloe berries. There’s a couple of bushes on the A47 just on the edge of the village and we walked up there with Holly to pick a few pounds. Margaret had scoped them out and after this lovely summer, the berries were deep purple and ripe. I walked Holly up and down the runway, while Margaret picked around 4lbs of fruit. We’ll use some for sloe gin - to add to the blackberry brandy - and I’ll take some down for Sam and Lucy this week (I’m seeing them on Thursday).
Finally, Barbara had put a bag of plums on the gate while we were having dinner. They may be eaten fresh or used for plum vodka!
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