September 2000

August went by in a whirl, as we struggled to keep up with harvesting and marketing whilst putting up an apple store during my so-called “holiday”. This is the sort of thing that happens to the enthusiastic but slightly disorganised amateur. Of course, we should have finished the store months ago, but it kept being put off. When we started, it was harder work than we thought. It is now almost complete, and will not win any architectural prizes, but if it keeps the mice and the wasps off our precious fruit we will be content. Next time we will try to get Charlie Dimmock’s gang on the job!

The apple of this month has definitely been Laxton’s Epicure. It’s fruitfulness has amazed us-we picked 400 lbs from 19 small trees, plus another 150 lbs of windfalls which are being made into cider. They started the season with huge bunches of big pink blossoms and set so many fruits that we had to snip three quarters off. The Laxton brothers raised Epicure in 1909 from Cox and Wealthy. It’s a sweet juicy apple with some Cox flavour, ripe from late August to mid September, after which it goes soft. Some of our customers whose teeth aren’t what they used to be prefer them like that.

We are slightly worried about the prospect of early autumn gales. Please, Lord, let us get all the apples in safely!

I’d better bottle that chutney now. Here’s the recipe:

• 4lb ripe tomatoes, 1lb apples, 1lb onions, all chopped fine in processor
  
• 1lb sugar (soft brown is best), 1 oz crushed allspice, ½ oz black pepper
  
• 1 pint cider vinegar, 2 oz balsamic vinegar, tablespoon sea salt.