Orchard Notes
Recent Feature Articles
- My Fruit Harvest Highlights – 2023 Edition
It’s my 2023 fruit growing round-up! The highs and the lows, the good and the bad, the weird and the wonderful. - Back Garden Fig Tree – Autumn 2023 UpdateChecking back in with our fig tree, badly frost-pruned in May 2021, to see just how strong its regrowth has been.
- Orchard Talk with Cook and Food Historian Monica AskayMonica talks about her interest in historical food and orchard cookery, shares her favourite fruit recipes and offers biffin-making tips.
- A Few Top Tips for Orchard Harvest SeasonIn which I re-post a selection of how-to articles that will help you get the best from your apple and pear harvests this autumn.
- In Search of the Original ‘Summer Pudding’In which I see if I can uncover the origins of the classic chilled fruit-and-bread dessert.
- Orchard Visit: The Laskett Gardens, HerefordshireThe orchard spaces within these famous gardens are hidden gems that provide plenty of fruit tree interest.
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Most Popular Feature Articles
- What Are ‘Chill Hours’ And Why Do They Matter?The recent UK-wide cold-snap will have been really good for our fruit trees – here’s why.
- The Norfolk Biffin, A History, Part I – Biffin DessertsIn part one of this article I explore the detailed story of the dried, pressed apple dessert known as the ‘Norfolk Biffin’.
- How To: Identify Apple and Pear VarietiesWondering how to i.d. a mystery apple or pear variety? Here’s a guide to: doing it yourself, asking an expert, and DNA testing.
- A Frost-Pruned Fig Tree, and What Happened NextLast year our fig tree was hit by a late frost. Every apical bud and fruitlet was killed. But that was far from the end of the story…
- A Tale of Two Crab Apple TreesI’ve pruned two very different crab apples this year – here’s how I approached each one, and the results of the work.
- Gallery: Lifecycle of an Apple, From Bud to Blossom to FruitFollow the lifecycle of a single apple bud from dormancy to harvest, in this series of 40+ photos.
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Recent Posts & Articles
- John Worlidge, on Growing Pears for PerryMr Worlidge outlines the advantages of growing pears rather than apples in wet, heavy soils, and tells us the best C17th sorts to plant for perry.
- Robert May, on Making ‘Warden or Pear Tart’Here’s a seventeenth century recipe for a classic pear pie. Packed full of sugar and spice, it’s also rosewater-iced, which sounds nice…
- My Fruit Harvest Highlights – 2023 EditionIt’s my 2023 fruit growing round-up! The highs and the lows, the good and the bad, the weird and the wonderful.
- Jeanette C. Van Duyn on Making ‘Casserole of Quinces’This rather tasty-sounding, early C20th recipe for stewed quinces is simplicity itself.
- Thomas Jenner, on ‘Preserving Medlers’This C17th recipe for medlars in syrup sounds interesting, but reading it left me somewhat confused and bemused,
- Charlotte Mason, on Making ‘Verjuice’Here’s a quick and easy-sounding C18th method for making a crab-apple version of the once-common condiment .
- Back Garden Fig Tree – Autumn 2023 UpdateChecking back in with our fig tree, badly frost-pruned in May 2021, to see just how strong its regrowth has been.
- “Agricola” on the Moral Philanthropy of Good CiderI have no idea who this “Agricola” fellow might have been, but by Jove, I do like the sound of his pro-cider rhetoric.
- Orchard Talk with Cook and Food Historian Monica AskayMonica talks about her interest in historical food and orchard cookery, shares her favourite fruit recipes and offers biffin-making tips.
- Eliza Acton, on Making ‘Black Caps Par Excellence’This C19th recipe is for a classic version of baked apples, scorched on the top, then slow-stewed in sweet wine.
- Charlotte Mason, on Making ‘Vinegar Balls’This C18th recipe for portable, dried vinegar poses a lot more questions than it answers, the main one being: why?
- William Ellis, on Making ‘Scald-berry Puddings’This C18th recipe sounds like a tasty way to make good use of a perennial hedgerow favourite.
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