Posted: Thu Oct 20, 16 11:09 pm Post subject: apples
50kg in two bike loads, i havn't started on the orchard yet but will make a start tomorrow am on eaters for the foodbank folk.
this load is for us and came from a singleton tree that i cant id yet in what i suspect was the orchard of a 16th c big house, the tree is far older than any of the hospital planted ones c1900 to c1930 but is in what was part of that site after the semi derelict big house was sold in the 1840's.
Might be worth getting a proper ID done. If it is an old variety, it might be a sole survivor or rather rare and if it produces good apples, be worth propogating. Glad you got such a good haul. Are you making apple juice or cider with that lot?
proper id needs doing for 8 trees/ sets of trees on my beat and probably about 50 more that i know of via the york ancient orchards network.
the big very old one is going to get cloned anyway even if it never gets a name on the grounds that it is a survivor with no maintainance for over 50 yrs , probably longer, it also seems very resistant to pests and diseases.
some stored for cooking, some dried asap, some juiced and cidered
i got about 35kg of tom putts for me and the same for the foodbanks this am .
looks like i have a busy weekend ahead, the two picks we are organising next week will be mostly food bank (and hearts n minds chat) but i still need to grab a load of eaters for us.