No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

[Deleted User]

Brrrrr! we've got a stiff little breeze blowing here today and I'm on the verge of long sleeves! Nice productive morning, the dehydrator is full of runner and French beans and long cut courgettes to squirrel away for later in the year, we've scratted another big batch of apples, including a half bucket of windfalls from the big old apple tree on the front lawn and produced another couple of gallons of juice for cider. I'm going to take Cookie out in a minute for a nice walk and it's starting to look like the edge of autumn down here. The trees are suffering a bit from lack of water so the leaves are turning early and beginning to drop a little, the elderberries are ripening as are the blackberries in the hedgerows. Looks like being a mega crop of acorns on the oaks and lots of beech mast too this year and the crab apples are swelling and ripening as are the hawthorn haws. Conkers in their green overcoats are just starting to shed but are milky white in the shell not ripe and gorgeously glossy brown yet. Going to be a good rose hip year too so I'm eyeing up several patches of dog roses with a view to making rose hip syrup. Love this time of year, love the picking, processing and making of things and really, really love looking in the store room and seeing the provisions building on the shelves, knowing we've made it happen between us. SATISFACTION!!! xxx.

hoglet121

MLW - one of the things I do miss about the UK is late summer/early autumn when the hedgerows are ripening and it's time for tasty things to be made. I used to make a mean apple and blackberry jelly. We don't get blackberries growing wild here, or not that I've seen anyway. But on the plus side, we get lots of citrus throughout the winter so we just make different sorts of things! I got my first proper crop of limes this year and my dwarf lemon tree has producedits first lemon.

[Deleted User]

How exciting HOGLET, fresh limes and lemons from your own trees must be as nice as the first Discovery apples to come on the market marking the turn of summer into autumn here in the UK. I love apple days several places still have collections of all the old fashioned varieties and you can try all those apples with the odd names and they will identify apples from your garden if you take one along, love the smell of many apples in one place and love the heritage being visible in the vast piles of different coloured and textured apples with different flavours to the usual cox and granny smiths. I wish we could get all the orchards planted up again in this country and become a world apple producing nation again. Growing up in Kent meant orchards, all sorts of blossom and farm shops selling lovely apples in the autumn, cherries in the summer and sheep grazing under the trees all year round, it was beautiful.

candlelight_2013

Himself lived on a fruit farm in Kent Lyn, and after his Mum died I went to live with him and his Dad.

For a city girl it was wonderful. As you say cherries, and that beautiful cherry blossom, plums and some damsons then in Autumn all the variety of apples and pears and I had never seen such large apples before. We had some of the old varieties as well and Himself would tell me the best ones, and how to pick an apple off the tree. DD1 was born in September and I think I lived on apples.

We also grew vegetables, and I never bought a potato until we moved back to the city. I can remember in the garden to the farmhouse we grew horseradish, and my goodness it was strong. Of course I didn't know what to do with it so I asked one of the girls I worked with (Solicitors office) and her Mum had been a housekeeper so she kindly showed me, but as I say it was really strong and of course grew all over the place .

I can't understand why the supermarkets stick to the same varieties all the time, when there are so many different ones. I think you have to visit a farm shop to get the choice

Candlelightx

Floss

Mrs LW I read recently that 5 fruit trees constitutes an orchard and on our allotment we have 2 plum, 2 apple and a pear tree - our very own mini-orchard in Blackpool! We also have a cherry that isn't very productive & is taking up space, so it is on a final warning!

[Deleted User]

YAY FLOSS has an orchard!!! I've only got 4 assorted (3 very tiny) apple trees on the front lawn but I do have a fig tree in the back garden, do I qualify? also have a tiny damson tree on the front but boy is it little!

moneyistooshorttomention

By that definition - yay! I've got an orchard too:D - apples and plums in my case.

Floss

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

YAY FLOSS has an orchard!!! I've only got 4 assorted (3 very tiny) apple trees on the front lawn but I do have a fig tree in the back garden, do I qualify? also have a tiny damson tree on the front but boy is it little!

I would say that yes, your front lawn is also an orchard!

[Deleted User]

We're going to be offline for most of the rest of the day, the latest upgrade/download/version of whatever drives the dratted computer has fried it's little electronic brain so He Who Knows is going to have to put it out of its misery, do a mega clear out of debris and re install everything from scratch which he tells me WILL TAKE TIME!!! Hasta la vista people I'll be back!

candlelight_2013

We are having a terrible time with our internet as well Lyn.

I have just lost a long post, I don't know whether this will do through.

I will try a little later, but I was sending love and hugs to Lainey

Candlelightx