September is when the orchard really comes into it’s own and the next three months will be spent gathering and storing apples and pears. I feel so lucky, and grateful to my  predecessor Stuart, for planting such a rich variety of trees, although I often wish I knew exactly what types are here. Some are fairly obvious, but others I still ponder over.

There are three types of pears; William’s, Comice and Conference. The William’s pears are now ready and yesterday I harvested a large bowl full.

There are also two types of apples which are ready now. One I cannot identify (the bowl on the left below). It is the first time I have had a crop from this apple tree that I thought had died. I cut back lots of diseased growth two years ago, leaving just a shortened trunk (essentially it was coppiced). I had planned to get rid of the trunk when I could borrow a chain saw, then to my surprise last Spring, there was some leafy growth and this Summer apples. Not many, but at least a dozen of reasonable size. Even with my apple identification book I cannot work out what they are.  Perhaps I need to get to an ‘Apple Day’ this year – I shall save a couple in the fridge. That is, if they don’t all get eaten; these apples are crunchy and juicy with a good balance of sweetness and acidity.

On the right is ‘Katy’ or ‘Katya’, which I understand is an apple developed in Sweden. Every year without fail it gives a huge early crop around mid-August. The problem is that it looks (and smells) much better than it tastes. It is always so exciting to have such a heavy crop early in the season and in the first couple of years I gathered them in with delight, however after a few days they remained uneaten, going woody and dry in the fruit bowl. Last year Lois and I made some reasonable cider with them, having noticed that there is a cider actually called Katy and while it was OK, it still had that rather dry, acidic (even metallic) Katy after-taste.

This year, to my shame, I just let the apples drop to the ground, many of them rotting quickly and attracting the wasps, so yesterday I raked them up (making three wheelbarrow loads) and dumped them on the perimeter of the wooded area. I figured that even if we don’t like them, perhaps the deer and badgers would, and with luck would stop them coming and helping themselves to the nice ones.

So, what to do in the future? I hate to waste food, but I am also averse to eating not-very-nice apples, or taking the time to make not-great apple juice, when we have so many lovely apples that I really enjoy, such as the Cox’s Orange Pippin, Golden Delicious and Spartan. Ben suggested that we cut it down to make room for a better tree, however this also seems a shame as the tree is so beautiful and healthy and I also understand that it is a good pollinator for other fruit trees. Perhaps, with it’s good looks and lovely smell I should simply use it for display or maybe it would be better cooked? If you have any bright ideas please let me know…