Author Topic: Apple Day 2011 (Read 964 times)

Simon · « **on:** September 19, 2011, 07:44:19 PM »

A press release from SCAN:

Quote

Apple Day is an annual celebration of the apple harvest, marked with a variety of events across the country. This year, Apple Day is Saturday October 22nd when the Swindon Climate Action Network's local food campaign is joining forces with Lower Shaw Farm for a local celebration. SCAN has been awarded a grant to buy an apple press and this will be at the farm. Everyone is invited to come along with their own apples and turn their crop into fresh apple juice.

All you need to bring is your apples (or pears) and suitable containers to take your juice home. The left over crushed apples will be fed to Lower Shaw Farm's resident pigs, or composted, so nothing will be wasted. The day runs from 11 to 4, free admission and with an apple-themed cafe on site. If you don't have an apple tree, why not ask your neighbour if you can pick theirs! Why not come anyway and join in the fun! Good links to the local cycle network and just off bus route 19 at Brookfield School.

The only slight problem is that this year's bumper apple crop is much earlier than usual, so you will need to pick and store your apples for a few weeks!

Tips for storing apples:

pick them carefully, bruised apples will not keep
find somewhere cool to put them
wrap the fruit singly in kitchen paper (or even newspaper) and place carefully into boxes or trays
spread them out a little so they do not touch

And don't forget to bring them to Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw Lane SN5 5PJ on 22nd October!

Please download a poster to advertise this event.

Hope to see you there

Mart · « **Reply #1 on:** September 19, 2011, 08:31:16 PM »

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Manual-Fruit-Press-Wine-Grape-Apple-Cider-Press-6L-/140578994708?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item20bb293a14

Mmmm.

Muggins · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2011, 10:02:52 AM »

You can buy them cheaper than that Mart.

Penhill Orchard will be represented at the Apple Day at Lower Shaw- we should be able to hold our own one day, but people keep picking and eating our Apples and Pears, Cherries, Gages, Plums, Raspberries, Blackcurrants, Blackberries, Gooseberries, Strawberries, Rhubarb.

And if our Chair(man) would stop chopping the top off it, we would even have *Figs by now.

Fig trees grow BIG if you don't encase their roots.

Sometime in the future we should have Mulberries too.

Alex · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2011, 02:52:46 PM »

It's a shame that there's a huge tree laden with apples at the back of Avenue Road in some derelict land- but every year they go to waste. They look about ready for picking right now.

Someone even put out a green bag full of apples as green waste last month.

Muggins · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2011, 03:56:49 PM »

Funny isn't it, when a whole day turns up apples.

Just had an email from a old Penhillian, who has bought an apple press, he wants to lend it to us in it's down time. Luckily our worker is keen to have some sort of celebration so we've put the two together. 29th October, small event between us (Orchard) in the morning and the Chippenham Close Community Centre in the afternoon. So please let me know if you have or know anyone who has, any late fruiting varieties, or 'keepers' that we can use.

All being well - and getting available grants - we'll be having a Wassail over Christmas this year too.

Simon · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2011, 07:30:34 PM »

Quote from: Alex on September 20, 2011, 02:52:46 PM

It's a shame that there's a huge tree laden with apples at the back of Avenue Road in some derelict land- but every year they go to waste. They look about ready for picking right now.

Is it accessible? If so, get in there and pick them, store them and bring them along next month. You could share the juice with your neighbours too if you feel so inclined

Mart · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2011, 08:28:48 PM »

I really covet an apple tree now.

I've got a £6.50 Gardening Club voucher, that'll help, cooker or dessert? What a quandary, I'm leaning to Bramley, some people cook with some dessert apples I know, but I like that jaw jamming tang of a cooker.

I predict baked apples this weekend, I also wonder about bread and butter pudding with apple.

Eve's pudding.

Fritters, cinammon sugar.

Apple dumplings. (Used to get tinned ones)

Crumble with an oaty, nutty topping.

We had a Bramley tree when I was a nipper, I liked them raw, sliced, Carnation and a sprinkle of sugar.

I'm hungry now......

Muggins · « **Reply #7 on:** September 21, 2011, 09:17:37 AM »

We've three or four cookers down the Orchard and one or two of the desserts double up for cooking too. Reverend Wilkes, Crimson Bramley and Bramley Seedling, can't remember the other one, I'll have to look it up and the desserts that also cook.

Reverend Wilkes is a BIG apple. I couldn't eat a green apple to save my life, sets my teeth on edge just thinking about it.

I'd like to invite you down to taste them- but they've all gone.

Worcester Pearmain is my favourite, but they don't keep.

kohima · « **Reply #8 on:** September 21, 2011, 03:06:40 PM »

Ive got three of those Rev Wilkes trees on my alottemt and ha ve won the cup for the best cooking apple for the last 2 years, I bought them at an RHS display in Malvern show many years ago, as you say muggins really big and a lovely yellow\green.

Mart · « **Reply #9 on:** September 21, 2011, 04:24:00 PM »

I'd like to invite you down to taste them- but they've all gone.

Charming.

That Rev Wilkes could be the kiddy then, do they get big,? I fancy it more for the garden than the allotment.

I'm giving Apple wine a go incidentally, been dwelling on it a while, I reckon if I use pure juice, say a couple of pints, knock it up to a gallon, 2 to 3lb of sugar, leave out the citric acid add yeast and nutrient I could be onto something.

Peapod is clearing nicely.

Bassettina · « **Reply #10 on:** September 21, 2011, 04:34:24 PM »

Quote from: Mart on September 20, 2011, 08:28:48 PM

I really covet an apple tree now.

I've got a £6.50 Gardening Club voucher, that'll help, cooker or dessert? What a quandary, I'm leaning to Bramley, some people cook with some dessert apples I know, but I like that jaw jamming tang of a cooker.

I predict baked apples this weekend, I also wonder about bread and butter pudding with apple.

Eve's pudding.

Fritters, cinammon sugar.

Apple dumplings. (Used to get tinned ones)

Crumble with an oaty, nutty topping.

We had a Bramley tree when I was a nipper, I liked them raw, sliced, Carnation and a sprinkle of sugar.

I'm hungry now......

A really good apple sauce, with a hint of cider or apple brandy, is very versatile. Great with pork, dusck or goose. Equally nice served warm over vanilla ice cream.

Or a big baking apple, cored and stuffed with dried nuts and fruit, honey and a bit of butter, baked until it's bursting at the seams, then drizzled with cold single cream. (For a Christmas version, stuff apples with mincemeat and add alcohol)

Alex · « **Reply #11 on:** September 21, 2011, 05:41:43 PM »

Sadly the tree in Avenue Road isn't accessible- we've tried to get the owner to allow someone to use it as an allotment ( for a rent) - but to no avail. As I wander around Old Town its quite amazing how many fruit trees there are in fenced but derelict sites.

There used to be a brilliant apple tree next door, an ancient one- no idea what variety but the apple were delicious when they fell over onto our garden.
Needless to say that was cut down when the garden was "developed".

Still - we have planted a cox's orange pippin and maybe in 20 years or so it will be big enough to bear some fruit.

Simon · « **Reply #12 on:** September 21, 2011, 07:59:25 PM »

Quote from: Alex on September 21, 2011, 05:41:43 PM

Sadly the tree in Avenue Road isn't accessible- we've tried to get the owner to allow someone to use it as an allotment ( for a rent) - but to no avail. As I wander around Old Town its quite amazing how many fruit trees there are in fenced but derelict sites.

That's verging on criminal, allowing nature's bounty to go to waste like that.

Never mind, whatever apples you can collect, bring them along for pressing

Jean · « **Reply #13 on:** September 21, 2011, 10:58:30 PM »

Quote from: Mart on September 20, 2011, 08:28:48 PM

I really covet an apple tree now.

I've got a £6.50 Gardening Club voucher, that'll help, cooker or dessert? What a quandary, I'm leaning to Bramley, some people cook with some dessert apples I know, but I like that jaw jamming tang of a cooker.

I'd go for the Lord Lambourne. We planted a couple of these in the Richard Jefferies' orchard about 4 years ago and have had good fruit every year - no sign of any disease either unlike the Cox's Pippin (my favourite!) that tends to get very blemished skin.

The blurb says that "the Lord Lambourne was introduced in 1907 and is very much in the tradition of classic English high-quality dessert apples. It has the pleasing uniform shape - round, and not too flattened - and typical orange flush over green, with a hint of russet. On biting into a Lord Lambourne the first thing that strikes you is the juice and acidity. The flesh is creamy-white and quite crisp, and the flavour is pleasantly strong." You need a similar variety nearby to be sure of cross-pollination.

Muggins · « **Reply #14 on:** September 22, 2011, 09:08:00 AM »

Mart: That Rev Wilkes could be the kiddy then, do they get big,? I fancy it more for the garden than the allotment.

I gave the wrong impression Mart, it's the Apple that is large not the trees, just watch what rootsotck you get, I think ours are all MM106.

Alex: You won't have to wait that long, we started planting the Orchard on 1st March 2003 - we now have a fully functioning Orchard that also looks like one.

The old recipe for baked apples, they were stuffed with sultanas and cinnamon, but I like the other ideas.

Jean, we have 4 Lord Lambourne too.

And Bats, we saw some last evening.

One of the children came up and held my hand and said, "I think where you work is really nice". Her sister said, all twinkly eyed, "I fell out of tree, I fell out of a tree! Thrilled to bits, she was.

We have discovered all you have to do to give kids a good time is walk them through a bit of open space with trees after dark with their torches and a couple of bat sensors.

Muggins · « **Reply #15 on:** September 24, 2011, 09:06:18 AM »

Hold fire on that cooking apple purchase Mart, I've been looking at our lists.

Bramley Seedling - pick October - keeps until January
Reverend Wilkes - pick October - keep until November

This might be the one:

Lanes Prince Albert - pick October but keeps until March.

I have no idea what it tastes like, but a cooked apple is a cooked apple!

Blurb about it:
A cooking apple tree with a late crop, Lane's Prince Albert apples are a lovely sharp tasting fruit. The grain is fine and does not disintegrate in the oven, so these are good apples to go with your favourite cream or blended with sweeter cooking apples in more daring dishes - and the best apple for tarte tatin. The Trees- are in fruit from October until Christmas and are fine as dessert apples by then. This is an apple tree with good timing, producing warming and nutritional cookers throughout the coldest part of the year. Once, these apples were common cookers for sale in the local markets but now remaining orchards mostly use them for juiceit makes excellent cider by the way.

Lane's Prince Albert Apple History and Parentage
Charmingly, Lane's Prince Albert takes its name from the event of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert changing their coach horses near Berkhampstead at the time the first young tree was transplanted there by Mr Squire. Of course, Mr Lane was pleased to tell his customers this story some time later when he was selling these Trees- and their winter apples. The original tree lasted for about 90 years before the house and gardens were reconstructed. The parents are recorded as Russet Nonpareil, which is very tasty although prone to produce odd-shaped fruit and Dumelow's Seedling, a good apple for making sauces and purees.

Malus domestica Apple Tree Pollination Guide for Malus domestica Lane's Prince Albert
Although this is an apple that will self-pollinate to some degree, as with all "fertile" apples, Lanes Prince Albert will yield much better if it is cross-pollinated with another variety of apple. With flowers in May, a Lane's Prince Albert will work with almost any tree that is shown as a Mid Season tree in our List of Apple Tree Pollinators. A nearby crab apple is always the simplest way of making sure that all your apple Trees- get a good dose of pollen, we recommend either the John Downie or the yellow fruiting Golden Hornet.

Rootstocks for Lane's Prince (they mention MM106)

Bassettina · « **Reply #16 on:** September 24, 2011, 09:38:03 AM »

There's supposed to be a bumper apple harvest this year due to the weather. Despite not having an apple tree, I have been given two bags opf Bramleys and another of a small, lumpy garden cooker to do something with. To google!

Mart · « **Reply #17 on:** September 24, 2011, 10:00:25 AM »

I'm on a promise as well.

I'm going to preserve them by peeling, coring and blanching then freezing. Leaves my options open bar baked.

I've got my apple juice in for the wine experiment as well, going for subtle, I don't want flat cider.

Saw Nigel Slater do pork with gooseberries last night, looked nice but I don't think the goosgogs will supplant the apple.

Mmmm, gadget alert.

Muggins · « **Reply #18 on:** September 24, 2011, 02:29:18 PM »

They keep saying about this bumper harvest and indeed the Orchard was agog with apples, pears etc prior to the school holidays.

We could blame the kids for there being almost none left on the trees, but for them to have taken ALL of them they would have been at it 24/7, so we have to assume that the reason we have none left is that people have realised it's there, and taken them before they were ripe and maybe they've been a bit greedy too. Out of 200+ trees we have only 12 cookers and 8 cider apples the rest are all eaters.

The only trees with all their apples still on are the Reinette Ananas which is a December ripener.

I take from that we have been successful in promoting the Orchard! Got a mention in the Marlborough newpapeers this week.

I smell of fox, must go and shower and change!

AndyP · « **Reply #19 on:** September 28, 2011, 08:36:17 PM »

More info on the Apple Day.

We're inviting local food producers / distributors / vendors to have stalls at the event. So, if this is you, please drop me a line at andy@swindonclimate.org.uk

Already confirmed - Lorraine Stanton from Vowley Farm will be cooking up some of her local meat for consumption to complement the offerings from the Lower Shaw Farm cafe. Penhill Orchard will have a stall. Purton House Organics will be there.

More updates when we get them.

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Author Topic: Apple Day 2011 (Read 964 times)