Fruitwise
Diary of an English Orchard
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October 2000

September, our busiest month, is at last over, and by the second week of October the apples are nearly all picked. Thankfully, we didn’t get any bad gales. Apple of the month was Ellison’s orange, a variety raised by the Rev. C.C. Ellison and his gardener, Mr Wipf, in Lincolnshire in 1904, from Cox and Calville Blanche (a French variety). It received the order of merit from the RHS in 1911. They cropped lightly last year, but this September gave a huge crop, many of which have gone into apple juice and cider. The apple is very sweet and has a hint of aniseed, which intensifies as it matures. It usually eats well from mid September until late October, but like all our apples has been ripe early this year. A very spicy fruit, which ought to carry a flavour warning for Golden Delicious eaters!

One big disappointment this autumn has been the poor showing by 2 of our favourite fruits, Egremont Russet and Ribston Pippin. We suspect inadequate pollination due to the changeable spring and not enough bees. We have got some bees now, one lot from Meridian Beekeepers (thanks) and a wild swarm, which I collected in August from one of our trees! If the bees survive the winter, I hope they will help some of our trickier fruits do better. I must feed them some sugar this weekend to help them through the winter; they haven’t had much of a summer to store honey.

On 24th September we took some of our apples to Manor Farm, where there was an excellent demonstration of threshing by steam and a lovely brass band, but sadly few visitors due to constant rain. We enjoyed being able to share some of the old fashioned flavours of our apples and some freshly pressed juice. It is always nice to be able to share the reminiscences of people who remember that lovely old tree in the garden of their childhood.

The cider pressing continues, and we have just taken delivery of an old oak barrel previously used for rum!

Stephen Hayes
6.10.2000

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