Feature Articles | Orchard Notes

Another Mystery Apple to Identify

The label says ‘Elstar;’ but the fruit says… something else. Time for another apple i.d. exercise.

I’ve often wondered about it, but never tried it, so I turned to a historical source or two, to see if I could find out how to do it.

In which an 18th century recipe for damson ice cream and some advice from Twitter inspires me to make my own delightful damson dessert.

Here’s a quick summary of my various orchard-related activities so far this year.

A summer afternoon in June was the perfect time to visit the home of Welsh Mountain Cider.

It’s that fruitlet thinning time of year again! Grab your sharpest snips and head on down to your orchard.

I’ve been shunning the standard advice and only winter pruning trained apple trees for three years now. Here’s how it’s going.

A recently published research paper has outlined some of the possible implications of climate change for orchard growers.

In the face of all the best advice to the contrary, I’ve decided to try growing a new apple variety or two from seed.

Here’s how I went about creating a ‘family’ apple tree of six varieties, using the rind grafting technique.