The warm, dull August has had little effect on the early apples in the orchard. This year is looks to be the biggest crop so far from the young trees planted nearly eight years ago. The first out is the Devon Quarrenden with its deep red, strawberry flavoured apples, they don’t keep more than a week or two and best taken from the tree and eaten. Most of ours dropped and juiced in the first batch pressing we did.
These were joined with Cornish Rattler cider apples as we had a few of these. This tree didn’t product that many this year as it’s a M25 root stock and will mature (and hopefully crop heavier) in a few years. The Rattler is a good cider apple with enough acid to ensure a quality cider, yet can still be eaten as a desert apple.
The last apple we had for September was James Grieve. It’s a good dual use apple from Scotland. Cooking/Cider but the acidity drops so by October that it’s sweet enough to eat. A few of these windfall apples went into the mix.
The last apple we had for September was James Grieve. It’s a good dual use apple from Scotland. Cooking/Cider but the acidity drops so by October that it’s sweet enough to eat. A few of these windfall apples went into the mix