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Here’s an eighteenth century recipe for another baked apple dish, although perhaps this is one you shouldn’t try at home…

A classic recipe from the archives today, for apples baked in wine and sugar, cooked in the oven until the tops are scorched.

Nothing is more likely to encourage people to eat a lovely, fresh apple than bringing Satan into the conversation…

Here are two recipes, one using almonds, for a dish of cold, congealed. flavourless mush… I’m really selling it, aren’t I?

A summer’s day in June was the perfect time to visit Hidcote’s orchards of mature, veteran and trained fruit trees.

Words of wisdom from a doyenne of the Boston Cooking School, published in 1891 and still, sadly, as true today as they were back then.

Here’s a late fifteenth century recipe for simple apple fritters coloured with saffron and spiced with pepper.

This 18th century recipe for a very simple staple – apple jelly – turned out to be typically not so simple to follow, unfortunately…

A quick, easy, C18th recipe for delicious-sounding apple fritters, brandy-soaked and fried to a golden-brown finish.

A short post with photos to demonstrate the benefits of removing excess fruitlets. (Again with the fruit thinning..!)

If your fruit trees aren’t carrying much fruit after an amazing harvest in 2020 then don’t worry, it’s quite natural.

In June 2021 I visited the orchards at Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire and here are my impressions.

Here’s a deliciously simple recipe for making a classic fruit and cream dessert that you’d be foolish not to try yourself.

Here’s a seventeenth century knight of the realm’s recipe for a sweet and spicy apple conserve to spread on your toast.

My twitter-buddy Barry’s article on the history of Pomonas and their origins in cider and perry production is well worth a read.

Here’s a brief taster of four orchards that I visited in early June (longer write-ups to follow in due course).

This eighteenth century recipe calls for pippins, dried fruit, sugar, eggs and plenty of booze.

Another dose of apple canker, this time on a cordon tree and with an even more drastic remedy required.

Now is a the best time to hand-thin apple fruitlets, particularly on smaller trees and definitely on any that are growing in pots.

This eighteenth century recipe is for making what sounds like a plum-based version of a Pontefract cake.

As leaves start to grow on your top-fruit trees it’s a good time to check your grafted plants for unwanted rootstock bud-break.

Christmas pudding, eat your heart out… Georgiana Hill has a year-round combustible dessert recipe for all occasions.

This fascinating book delves into the rich symbiotic relationship between trees and the fungal networks that sustain and nourish them.

Pruning apple at this point in the season isn’t usually advised, but sometimes you have to cut to control a problem.

We’ve had a really good year for blossom in the back garden, with crab apple ‘John Downie’ putting on a splendid display.

Another medieval fruit pudding for you, this time a concoction of figs, ale and breadcrumbs, spiced with cinnamon.

Spring 2021 has brought blossom, but also pest and physiological problems in Ordsall Hall’s heritage pear trees

Enjoy this selection of photos of the Hall’s heritage pear trees in full bloom a couple of weeks ago.

And what do those big profits require? A big investment in a big juice pressing machine…

This slight, slender volume is… okay, but there are much better alternatives in print.

This recipe for a quinces and almond milk dessert of some sort could take longer to decipher than to prepare…

A shout out for Steven Edholm’s superb SkillCult blog, where he’s been offering grafting advice and talking about his apple breeding project.

I’ve started putting together an index page of the archive recipes that I’m posting on the site.

In part one of this article I explore the detailed story of the dried, pressed apple dessert known as the ‘Norfolk Biffin’.

Susan’s rather lovely poem perfectly captures the orchardist’s winter frustration and the anticipation of spring.

Anyone for a 14th century recipe for what sounds distinctly like a fried, fruit-filled doughnut?

Fried fruity things, with apples, figs, dates, currants and spices? What’s not to like?

Two nights of bad weather after early blossom has bloomed is bad news, but hopefully not the end of this year’s crop.

When winter came in 19th century America, it was out with the thin linen cloths to protect the fruit still on the trees.

16th and 17th century jam-making recipe, anyone? No jars back then though, so you’ll have to store it in boxes…

This anonymously-authored 16th century apple dessert recipe could be a good one for anyone with a butter surplus to shift.

Anyone for an apple Bavarian cream? Time to dust off your old bunny mould and whip up a boozy Victorian dessert in time for Easter.

It’s every orchardist’s worse-case scenario: a sharp frost forecast just as the blossom is starting to open…

As this 1915 ad shows, when it comes to useful orchard equipment, some ideas and designs never go out of date.

Here’s another sweet-sounding baked apple dessert, this time from the early 19th century.

The anonymous author of this 18th century tract takes time our from moralising to make something jammy.

This 19th century recipe is billed as Cheap and Good, and with just four ingredients it should be easy enough to make.

Two 15th century recipes today, both for sweet, colourful, apple and bread / rice potages of some sort.

A poem.

Here’s a 16th century recipe for a sweet, spice, apple and bread sauce (or dessert?) that sounds rather intriguing.

Here’s a quick and easy recipe for the sort of fried apple sweetmeat enjoyed in the early 17th century.

Another 16th century mention for multiple-variety fruit tree grafting suggests it was quite a common practice for the time.

As this 16th century quotation shows, the concept of the multi-variety ‘family’ fruit tree is not a new one.

Hot stomake? Pissing in drops? Dry skin? Gonnhorrhaea? Smallpox scars? John Gerard has a remedy for that, and it’s cheaper than you might think…

Sometimes a drastic tree health problem like apple canker requires a fairly drastic pruning remedy.

Not sure when to graffe your peares, wardens or apples? Here’s Master F. to set you straight.

Bubonic Plague? Pleurisy? Gervase Markham has just the thing to get you back on your feet again.

Here’s a 16th century guide to assembling your graffynge kit, which every good housbande should keep to hand.

A follow-up to last year’s stepover winter pruning post, with details of re-growth and this year’s pruning.

I’ve been meaning to graft up a multi-variety apple tree for a while; here’s my first attempt.

If you’re looking for expert advice on grafting apple and pear trees, look no further.

Another good example of the almost scientific level of knowledge in C17th pomology.

This 17th century snippet seems to be a method for making Brimstone-flavoured cider, unless I’ve read it wrong..?

Hoate stomacke? Take a sowrish apple for that. But watch out for blastinges in the belly…

It’s always a good day when you get to plant new apple trees.

In the 18th century pomologists knew that only grafted trees came true to type, without knowing exactly why…

Here’s a snippet from a 19th Century gardening magazine – sounds like it might be interesting to try.

Here’s a C19th recipe for a grape-and-apple jam that seems to be good with all sorts of things.

A few chilly images of the Apprentice House orchard at Quarry Bank Mill in Styal.

Another round up of videos, this time explaining the best way to cut and store scion wood for grafting.

A rather interesting new series on cider apple varieties has just started on the ‘Turn Them All Into Cider’ blog.

Sowing apple pips to grow wilding trees? “Facile,” says Mr Evelyn. “Hold my cider”, says Mr Brennan.

Baked pum(p)kin and spiced apple deliciousness? What’s not to like?

A chance glance at a Tweet sparks hours of enjoyable research into old apple varieties and this very long-read piece.

It was a great idea in 1600 and it’s still a great idea in 2021: plant more orchards!

Have a blast at tree planting time with this time- and labour-saving suggestion from 1911.

This short video from The Orchard Project highlights the transformative power of community orchards.

A record of a rather superb (and rather under-unappreciated) gift to the Horticultural Society of London.

It’s the nineteenth century apple juice concoction that’s on everyone’s lips…

Four short videos, each explaining how best to plant your bare-root and/or potted fruit trees.

A new website promises to bring us the fascinating story of the apple over the next 18 months.

Wondering when might be the best phase of the Moone in which to plant your new apples trees?

The Museums Victoria Whatmough Collection contains some rather fruity items.

If you’re wondering what to plant in your half-acre plot, Mr Bunyard has a few suggestions.

The site now contains a set of pages of records of the trees we’re growing on our orchard allotment plot.

Looking for a handy checklist of fruit to plant before the month is out? Look no further.

An intro to Genetic diversity and clonal propagation, sixteenth century style.

A few pics, taken in haste before my fingers froze, on a bitterly cold January morning,.

Keith from @Stumpupfortrees has clearly done his homework on using tree guards when planting.

In which a few colour plates from an old plant catalogue leads to an hour’s worth of speculative detective work.

They seemed like such a nice bunch of folks when we met them at the 1921 orchard trade fair…

Here’s a recommended Twitter account for anyone interested in pomological artwork.

“To graf frute that shal have no core.” Clear. concise, sixteenth century instructions are provided.

Special offer fruit trees, anyone? Rail delivery as standard, postal service extra.

A few words of advice as true back in 1860 as they are today.

The recent UK-wide cold-snap will have been really good for our fruit trees – here’s why.

This sounds like a tasty twist on a traditional cider.

Are your pears unpleasing to Persons of Quality? Professor Bradley has the answer.

Turns out apple growing is a lot more straightforward than some folks make out…

It’s twelfth night – or one of them – which can mean only one thing in the orchard: Wassail!