The challenge with growing apples is what to do with the ones with imperfect skins that won't keep. I've been making dried apple rings a lot recently. I really enjoy them but they take a bit of production even with the help of a manual peeling, coring and slicing machine. It also seems a real shame to throw away the peel which has all kind of health benefits ('An apple a day..' looks as though it has some truth behind it - see this for example
Unusual Immuno-Modulatory Triterpene-Caffeates in the Skins of Russeted Varieties of Apples and Pears). So last night I tried making apple fruit leather for a change. I've made fruit leather plenty of times in the past but I tend to use soft fruit. This time I used up all the imperfect apples I had left over and used them with skins on. Here's the recipe: Ingredients: A small bag of apples A tablespoon of cinnamon A couple of tablespoons of sugar About 50ml water Method:
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It is still September but the apple harvest is now in. I picked the last apple I had missed last weekend today. The total came to a record breaking 60 kg. The apples seemed to ripen earlier than usual this year, especially the early ones, but also the later keepers. This is the first year where I've needed to have somewhere to put the keepers and I invested in a 13 drawer apple rack for the garage. That is now full up and I still have bags of apples that have less than perfect skins and won't keep. I'm working my way through cooking those and making dried apple rings and fruit leather. I realised that I couldn't remember all the times when the different varieties would be ready so I put together a table to remind me. Key: C - cooking; D - dessert; e - early; m - mid; l - late.
I look forward to the apple harvest all year. In many ways it is the peak of the harvest in the forest garden. It also feels like the gradual fruition of a long term plan that started with the planning of the garden and planting of trees nearly ten years ago now. While the smaller cordons were quick to mature, the bush Redsleeves tree is just about at full size now. The two standard trees - a Tydeman's Late Orange and a Court of Wick - are still maturing and will be several more years yet before they are at their peak. In the meantime I've grafted over an older tree with a number of other varieties and those are also still maturing. I'm learning that the apple harvest goes up and down each year. A good year tends to be followed by a poor year. In part that is due to the Tydeman's Late Orange tree having a tendency to biennial bearing. If I started over I would probably avoid a biennial bearer as one of the two standards. However, as the trees are still maturing the apple harvest is improving in the long term. This year has been a really good year with the current total at 44 kg and still rising (harvests are earlier this year). That compares to just 25 kg last year. The Tydeman's Late Orange has had a great year (see below for some pictures). The Redsleeves too has been very productive earlier in the year. But the other apples have also been producing well and have provided some welcome variety - Court of Wick, Russets, Annie Elizabeth, Grenadier, Newton Wonder and Rev W Wilks. So the abundance of apples leads to a the question of what to do with them? The choice of apples of apples in the garden design means that there are apples from earlies to lates. The later keeping apples that are in good condition can be stored (and need storing before they are ripe). In previous years there have been a high proportion of apples whose skins are damaged by codling moth. That meant that they couldn't easily be stored. This year I invested in a pheremone codling moth trap. It's the only artificial form of pest control that I use (albeit an organic one). In an ideal world there would be enough predators in the garden to keep the numbers of these moths under control. The garden isn't really big enough and doesn't have tall enough trees for bat roosts, but maybe in the future I might put up some bat boxes and see if I can encourage them. There have been dragonflies in the garden this year though and they may well contribute to keeping moth numbers down. The moth trap definitely caught some codling moths and the damage was lower this year, although not completely absent. As a result I've had more apples in good enough condition to store. So much so that I've finally invested in an apple store and its 13 drawers are almost full already. For the remainder of fruit that aren't in good enough condition to store I've been making large amounts of dried apple rings with the dehydrator this year. I'm constantly on the lookout for apple recipes too that use eaters as well as cooking apples. Apple and celery salad and cobnut and apple loaf cake are current favourites. I'm going to cook and freeze a batch soon and make some apple fruit leather next. More apple rings too.
I love getting away for a little while in the summer but I also really look forward to coming back home and seeing how the garden has been growing. I'm always slightly apprehensive in case any of the plants have died off without attention. However, I shouldn't have been surprised to see that the garden carried on just fine without me. Even the courgettes in pots had done well with a good watering before I left and a decent mulch over the top. Having picked the courgettes before I left even their fruit wasn't too large after 9 days away. The polytunnel has some low level automatic watering via some tubing with holes every 0.5m or so on an automatic timer. The weather was warm enough that everything was happy with one door open a bucket's width and the other about half a cat's width to allow some air flow. Lots of tomatoes to harvest, a cucumber and my very first aubergine! This time of year is really busy in the garden. Soft fruit is coming thick and fast and needs picking. Pots need watering too and there is weeding to do to keep on top of the raspberry shoots and bindweed. Apples need thinning. But it's also a great time to be in the garden when it is so full of life - bees, butterflies, hoverflies, damselflies, even blackbirds. Harvest-wise the sweet cherries are all picked and mostly eaten. It's been a record year with more than 3 kg and all before the end of June. Raspberries have done really well so far with more than 8 kg and still going strong. Jostaberries and redcurrants are about ready now and are starting to be picked. There are tayberries and loganberries too and the courgettes are starting to arrive.
I'm putting a bit more effort into growing courgettes this year. I have one large pot in the polytunnel and four others outside. If they all survive I think I will be drowning in them. In preparation I've been using my new dehydrator and trying out courgette crisps. Easy to make - slice thinly (about 1mm), toss in a little oil and add salt. I added some smoked paprika too for some more colour and flavour. They turned out really well - very crispy and tasty. I will definitely be tryong again with larger courgettes too. Warm weather has brought the soft fruit on really nicely in the garden. A few strawberries and alpine strawberries first then the raspberries followed in bulk! I've been picking them for a few weeks now and am struggling to keep up. When I have time it's easy to pick 500 g or more a day. As well as eating them fresh I'm filling freezer up. In previous years I've made fruit leather in the oven from soft fruit. I've been looking at dehydrators for a long time and have finally taken the plunge and got hold of a six tray version for this summer's produce. I'm still experimenting but so far so good. A few trays of raspberries were first - they were very unusual but very tasty. The looked almost like the fresh version but smaller. They were very dry though with a really strong flavour coming through later. I'm sure they would keep if stored properly but they were all finished up the next day!
Since then I have tried kale crisps with Russian kale with a little olive oil and salt. Very easy, very tasty. Lasted until lunchtime! Fruit leather is currently drying. Using the a 6 shelf dehydrator gives more space than the oven. The results seem very even too. I'm going to carry on experimenting - I think it's going to be a busy summer! It's finally been raining in the garden, but the beginning of the month was really dry and pretty cold. It hasn't stopped the flowers coming out and the bees too. The raspberry flowers have been getting lots of attention and the rosemary flowers as well. I took some time to capture some photos of the smaller flowers in the garden as well.
The small-leaved lime that was pollarded in the winter has recovered nicely and it growing away happily. Fruit is swelling on the jostaberry and the apples and pears too. Looking forward to the summer! Mixed blessings this month - beautiful display of blossom, especially the apple and quince trees but then a few nights of frost. Hoping the fruit has survived. Mulberry leaves are looking a little black after the frost too. Short video tour of the garden with all the blossom out. I finally got around to totting up the produce from last year. As in the last few years I've produced some graphs that summarise the different elements. Details of produce by quarter can be see in the sidebar on the right. First up is the total produce. 2015 was a real bumper year and 2016 didn't live up to that. Produce was almost exactly half the output of the year before. However, looking at the longer term trend there is a gentle rise with a couple of outstanding years. The early peak in 2011 was down to a big crop of potatoes when clearing the front garden. So the next plots shows everything apart from the vegetable output. That gets rid of the big potato peak in 2011 but there is still a big peak in 2015 and a drop to 2016. The next plot breaks the produce down by month. This makes it clear that there was a lot of produce from June onwards in 2015. By comparison 2015 looks strong after June compared to previous years. The early months look a little better than in 2015. That is probably due to more overwintering crops in the polytunnel. That point comes across more clearly in the next plot which shows the cumulative produce throughout the year. The first half of 2016 does better than the previous years. The summer and autumn crops (mostly soft fruit and then vegetables and tree fruit respectively) then did better in 2015. The next plot breaks down the 2016 output by type. The highest category is soft fruit in July followed by tree fruit and vegetables. Vegetables were definitely down this year. Cucumbers failed in the polytunnel thanks to slugs and snails and they contributed a good deal to the total weight in 2015. The last graph below shows the fruit production broken down into soft fruit and tree fruit. What is striking is that the fruit production is variable year on year. The garden has quite a variety of different fruit plants and that does even out some of the variability. For example, the Tydeman's Late Orange apple tree tends to be a biennial bearer whereas the others don't. Having said that, as a standard it is one of the bigger trees and so no crop has an impact on the total yield. The soft fruit was lower than the last three years. There may be a few reasons for this. The season started a little later in 2016 and I was a little lazier with picking than usual. I could probably have pushed the total up by another 5-10 kg if I was more conscientious. Some of the plants like the blackcurrants would have benefited from more active pruning too. I've certainly got expectations that the tree fruit will continue to rise as the larger trees mature, including the grafted apple tree which is covered in blossom on the side grafted first but less so on the more recently worked side. The sweet cherry fan continues to develop as do the apple standards and the mulberry. The sour cherry is unfortunately dying off, although it has some blossom still this year. The total weight is a useful guide to how productive the garden is. In terms of output per unit area it works out about 0.36 kg/m2 or 3.64 ton/ha. That's lower than a high intensity allotment but about in line with agricultural production.
A couple of other measures are worth a mention. Days on which I have harvested produce from the garden = 109. This was down on last year (144) maybe suggesting that I wasn't as active in the garden last year. That's still about one day in three when I get something from the garden though. The other number is how many different products did the garden produce? Last year was 58, down slightly from 63 in 2015, but the number has been gradually rising from 28 in 2010. It is definitely a diverse range of products. It's too soon to say how 2017 is going to look. I've been focusing on salad production from the polytunnel this year so I'm expecting the early part of the year to be reasonably productive. The total weight will probably depend on how well the summer polytunnel crops do as well as the apple and pear crop. If the apple blossom is anything to go by it might be a good one. When I was planning the forest garden I knew I wanted to make use of the west facing wall, but the thought of growing a wall trained fruit tree filled me with dread. It looked so complicated in the books I was reading and I was sure it was going to go badly. However, a west facing wall was not a spot to be wasted so I settled on a Stella sweet cherry fan. I bought a fan trained tree on Colt rootstock and pruned accordingly - starting with two branches to each side. I used a framework of supporting wires (actually plastic Gripple ones) about 30 cm apart with bamboo canes tied to them to tie in the branches. Most of the work to develop the framework happened in the first few years and since then it has just been a case of tying in new branches and pinching out shoots growing towards or away from the wall. This year is the first year that I have looked at the tree and noticed that it pretty much fills the wall. It is covered in blossom this year too. The flowers (and fruit) are pretty reliable but this year looks to have a lot of flowers. The growth at the top is just starting to outstrip the top of the space and I may have to do some more pruning to keep in check. The right hand side is slightly less full than the left but it is filling out. The tree seems pretty happy with the Crocosmia growing at its feet. I decided to dig out some photos of the tree as it developed over the years. The two photos below show the tree in mid-spring and summer in the second year after planting. The difference between the two shows how much growth the tree put on in the growing season. The tree in May the following year shows the growing framework with some early fruit. Four years after planting the framework shows the branching with each year. I used to use netting to keep birds away. However, after lazily leaving the netting on one winter and the new growth growing through it I had to cut the netting away. My cats seem to keep the brids away and I haven't really noticed that I lose many fruit. Six years after planting and the branches are reaching close to the top but there is still lots of room to the sides and gaps in the framework. A month later and the tree is transformed! A cordon pear (Concorde) is filling in the bottom right corner. Looking back I'm really pleased with how the fan has developed. I would definitely recommend growing a fan trained fruit tree to anyone with a wall free. It is less work than I anticipated and most of that is in the first couple of years. A sweet cherry tree is a thing of beauty and the fruit in June or July is always delicious. Most of it never reaches the kitchen!
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AboutA blog following the development of a small edible forest garden in Salisbury, Wiltshire, first planted in winter 2008.
AuthorA forest gardening enthusiast with an interest in growing food sustainably, locally and with minimal effort. More blogsAnni's Perennial Veggies
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Check out the resources page for lots more forest gardening websites, books and videos.
Details of my young forest garden are here and photos here. Produce 20161 Jan - 31 Mar
0.640kg Babington leek 0.417kg Cabbage 0.742kg Celeriac 0.005kg Coriander 0.343kg Daikon 0.003kg Fennel 0.091kg Garlic shoots 0.005kg Goji berry leaves 0.259kg Lettuce 0.002kg Mint 0.020kg Pak choi 0.233kg Parsley 2.100kg Potatoes 0.041kg Radish 0.006kg Red veined sorrel 2.069kg Rosemary 0.888kg Ruby chard 0.002kg Thyme 0.065kg Winter purslane 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.008kg Alpine strawberries 0.555kg Babington leeks 0.003kg Basil 0.989kg Beetroot 1.987kg Celeriac 0.019kg Chillis 0.076kg Chives 0.466kg Cleavers 0.227kg Coriander 0.075kg Courgettes 0.034kg Fennel 0.045kg Garlic shoots 0.004kg Gooseberries 0.048kg Holly leaves 0.006kg Lemon balm 0.541kg Lettuce 0.005kg Lime leaves 0.012kg Mint 0.108kg Nettles 0.440kg Oca 0.295kg Parsley 0.003kg Radish 0.241kg Raspberries 2.570kg Rhubarb 0.052kg Rocket 0.001kg Rosemary 2.338kg Ruby chard 0.022kg Sage 0.099kg Spring onions 0.464kg Strawberries 0.001kg Sweet violet 0.064kg Wild garlic 0.001kg Winter purslane 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.030kg Alpine strawberries 22.360kg Apples 0.003kg Basil 0.317kg Blackberries 0.706kg Blackcurrants 0.595kg Blueberries 0.085kg Chillis 0.002kg Chives 8.255kg Courgettes 0.003kg Fennel 0.205kg Gooseberries 2.674kg Hazelnuts 0.429kg Japanese wineberries 2.404kg Jostaberries 0.209kg Loganberries 0.025kg Mint 0.167kg Mulberries 0.006kg Nasturtium 0.004kg Parsley 4.068kg Pears 4.097kg Rapsberries 3.988kg Redcurrants 0.016kg Rocket 0.522kg Rosemary 0.026kg Spring onions 0.837kg Sweet cherries 0.234kg Tayberries 2.142kg Tomatoes 1.229kg Whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 2.263kg Apples 0.317kg Chillis 2.697kg Courgettes 0.060kg Mashua 0.030kg Mint 0.250kg Oca 0.080kg Parsley 0.581kg Pears 1.360kg Potatoes 0.011kg Rocket 0.056kg Rosemary 0.050kg Sage 0.651kg Tomatoes Produce 20151 Jan - 31 Mar
0.187kg Babington's leek 0.031kg garlic shoots 0.005kg mint 0.560kg salad 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.021kg alpine strawberries 2.074kg Babington's leeks 0.017kg basil 0.975kg blackcurrants 0.434kg cabbage 0.016kg chives 0.095kg coriander 0.009kg dill 0.156kg garlic shoots 0.443kg gooseberries 1.801kg kohlrabi 0.297kg lettuce 0.015kg lime leaves 0.035kg mint 0.033kg mustard leaves 0.231kg nettles 0.089kg onion 0.470kg oregano 0.013kg pak choi 0.013kg parsley 0.626kg peas 0.107kg peppermint 0.871kg purple sprouting broccoli 4.219kg raspberries 1.406kg red onion 0.048kg red-veined sorrel 1.751kg rhubarb 1.618kg ruby chard 0.324kg spring onion 1.157kg strawberries 0.577kg sweet cherries 0.242kg tayberried 0.001kg thyme 0.160kg wild garlic 0004kg winter purslane 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.003kg alpine strawberries 0.002kg apple mint 37.964kg apples 0.033kg basil 0.753kg blackberries 7.207kg blackcurrants 2.441kg blueberries 0.073kg cabbage 0.039kg celeriac 0.019kg coriander 6.329kg courgettes 15.960kg cucumber 0.012kg dill 0.466kg french beans 0.312kg garlic 1.447kg gooseberries 12.822kg hazelnuts 0.967kg Japanese wineberries 2.390kg jostaberries 0.205kg lettuce 0.001kg lime basil 0.848kg loganberries 0.018kg mint 0.203kg mulberries 0.005kg oregano 0.041kg pak choi 0.004kg parsley 2.010kg pears 0.006kg peppermint 8.529kg raspberries 6.138kg redcurrants 0.005kg rocambole 2.198kg ruby chard 0.024kg sage 1.605kg sour cherries 0.191kg strawberries 0.843kg strawberries 0.651kg tayberries 0.001kg thyme 15.138kg tomatoes 0.977kg whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.117kg chilli peppers 0.018kg coriander 0.022kg courgettes 6.716kg cucumbers 0.008kg dill 0.223kg french beans 0.115kg hazelnuts 0.025kg lettuce 0.002kg mint 0.065kg parsley 0.524kg pears 1.412kg ruby chard 0.072kg spring onion 6.489kg tomatoes Produce 2014
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.308kg Babington leeks 0.034kg garlic shoots 0.001kg parsley 0.004kg red veined sorrel 0.011kg rosemary 0.025kg sage 0.016kg thyme 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.010kg alpine strawberries 1.350kg Babington leeks 0.104kg blackcurrants 0.012kg chives 0.210kg garlic shoots 0.092kg gooseberries 0.006kg lemon balm 0.529kg loganberries 0.015kg oregano 0.006kg parsley 0.035kg peppermint 5.655kg raspberries 0.177kg redcurrants 0.051kg red veined sorrel 7.180kg rhubarb 0.120kg salad 0.006kg salad burnet 0.896kg strawberries 0.509kg tayberries 0.084kg wild garlic 1 Jul - 30 Sep 5.121kg apples 0.008kg alpine strawberries 0.857kg blackberries 1.190kg blackcurrants 0.904kg blueberries 1.840kg garlic 6.102kg hazelnuts 0.467kg Japanese wineberries 0.716kg loganberries 0.313kg mulberries 3.742kg pears 2.752kg raspberries 2.349kg redcurrants 0.054kg rocambole 0.050kg sage 1.655kg sour cherries 0.021kg sweet cherries 0.298kg tayberries 0.242kg whitecurrants 0.078kg worcesterberries 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.113kg salad 0.382kg oca 0.200kg potatoes Produce 2013
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.024kg garlic shoots 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.326kg Babbington leeks 0.222kg blackcurrants 0.363kg garlic shoots 0.147kg gooseberries 0.002kg lemon balm 0.121kg lettuce 0.004kg lime leaves 0.058kg mizuna 0.121kg oregano 0.010kg pea shoots 0.015kg peppermint 0.223kg raspberries 0.020kg red veined sorrel 3.900kg rhubarb 0.400kg salad 0.005kg salad burnet 0.008kg shitake mushrooms 0.076kg strawberries 0.013kg thyme 0.136kg wild garlic 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.101kg alpine strawberries 13.653kg apples 0.276kg blackberries 2.816kg blackcurrants 1.380kg blueberries 0.159kg broad beans 0.965kg courgettes 1.340kg garlic 1.808kg hazelnuts 0.118kg Japanese wineberries 0.493kg loganberries 0.008kg mulberries 4.368kg pears 0.036kg peppermint 1.143kg potatoes 0.063kg quince 9.226kg raspberries 0.699kg redcurrants 0.223kg rocambole 0.150kg salad 1.448kg sour cherries 0.064kg spearmint 0.660kg spring onions 0.863kg strawberries 1.622kg sweet cherries 0.156kg tayberries 0.721kg whitecurrants 0.010kg worcesterberries 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.938kg pears 0.095kg quince 0.091kg oca 0.242kg mashua Produce 2012
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.050kg fennel 0.009kg garlic shoots 0.030kg goji berries 0.050kg rocket 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.004kg alpine strawberries 0.480kg cabbage 0.323kg garlic shoots 0.050kg lemon balm 0.002kg loganberries 0.050kg mint 0.402kg mushrooms 0.360kg potatoes 0.730kg raspberries 0.030kg red veined sorrel 0.130kg redcurrants 4.000kg rhubarb 0.540kg rocket 0.020kg sorrel 0.134kg strawberries 0.007kg tayberries 01 Jul - 30 Sep 0.020kg alpine strawberries 0.180kg apples 0.552kg blackberries 0.178kg blackcurrants 0.711kg blueberries 1.020kg garlic 0.201kg gooseberries 0.263kg hazelnuts 0.051kg Japanese wineberries 0.028kg loganberries 3.354kg pears 1.610kg potatoes 0.910kg raspberries 0.353kg redcurrants 0.063kg sour cherries 0.049kg strawberries 0.014kg tayberries 0.192kg whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 7.690kg Jerusalem artichokes 0.211kg oca 0.010kg peppermint 0.820kg potatoes 0.010kg thyme Produce 2011
1 Jan - 20 Mar
Firewood Rosemary Sage Chives Salad burnet 21 Mar - 31 May 0.035kg chives 0.070kg lemon balm 0.005kg nasturtium leaves 0.017kg raspberries 4.060kg rhubarb 0.060kg rocket 0.020kg rosemary 0.280kg sage 0.070kg salad burnet 0.050kg sorrel 0.065kg spearmint 0.429kg strawberries 0.012kg sweet fennel 0.003kg tayberries 0.010kg thyme 1 Jun - 31 Aug 35.2kg 29 different crops: 0.030kg alpine strawberries 8.884kg apples 0.492kg beetroot 0.258kg blackberries 0.377kg blackcurrants 0.337kg blueberries 0.010kg chives 7.095kg courgettes 0.001kg fennel 0.946kg garlic 1.481kg hazelnuts 0.001kg Japanese wineberry 0.007kg lemon balm 0.005kg mashua leaves 0.004kg nasturtiums 0.100kg pears 0.005kg peppermint 11.920kg potatoes 1.130kg raspberries 0.262kg redcurrants 0.005kg rocket 0.064kg salad burnet 0.460kg sour cherries 0.024kg spearmint 0.558kg strawberries 0.311kg sweet cherries 0.086kg tayberries 0.087kg whitecurrants 1 Sep - 31 Dec 11.633kg apples 0.040kg aronia berries 1.299kg beetroot 0.036kg blackberries 2.472kg courgettes 0.034kg hazelnuts 6.205kg Jerusalem artichokes 4.250kg mashua 1.801kg pears 37.135kg potatoes 0.371kg raspberries 0.024kg strawberries 0.044kg whitecurrants Produce 2010
A record of produce from the garden in 2010. I expect this list to get much longer in later years.
1 Jan - 20 Mar 2010: Firewood - kindling and small logs for wood burner Herbs - rosemary Vegetables - 5 leeks Greens - Handfull of sorrel, salad burnet and dandelions. 21 Mar - 4 Jun 2010 3.600kg rhubarb 0.250kg sorrel rosemary salad burnet mint chives rocket a few strawberries 5 Jun -> 1.120kg garlic 1.063kg raspberries 3.430kg rhubarb 0.165kg strawberries 0.104kg sweet cherries 0.065kg tayberries 0.130kg gooseberries 0.029kg alpine strawberries 0.100kg loganberries 1.710kg sour cherries 0.486kg blackberries 0.039kg blackcurrants 0.220kg blueberries 3.264kg courgettes 0.240kg lettuce 8.375kg pears 3.820kg potatoes 9.300kg apples 0.076kg hazelnuts See archives from October 2009 below for last year's produce. Archives
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