Orchard Notes

Yellow currants on the bush

A handful of yellow currants, with desiccated flower strings attached

Bagged yellow currants, ready for the freezer

Anyone a fan of yellow currants? After picking & processing a few hundred berries from the small bush on our #allotment, I have to confess that I probably won't bother harvesting them in future. Although I will still be growing them on our plot.

Here's why: orchardnotes.com/2025/08/03/a...

Great suggestion, thank you! Sieving should take care of those stringy stalks... I might just give that one a go down the line.

Aye, the berries are purplish-black, but the flowers are a shock of yellow, hence the name 🙂

Wow 😍

Yellow currants on the bush

A handful of yellow currants, with desiccated flower strings attached

Bagged yellow currants, ready for the freezer

Anyone a fan of yellow currants? After picking & processing a few hundred berries from the small bush on our #allotment, I have to confess that I probably won't bother harvesting them in future. Although I will still be growing them on our plot.

Here's why: orchardnotes.com/2025/08/03/a...

I think you're right there. Maybe leave out a couple of ingredients, or even just the one..? 🤔

Text of a recipe for 'Tart de Brymlent' from The Fourme of Cury (circa 1390). Visit the link for a text-only version, and my attempt to translate the middle English recipe into something a bit more modern.

Anyone for 'Tart de Brymlent'? Here's a late-C14th recipe for a fruit pie with one rather surprising main ingredient, from 'The Fourme of Cury' (c.1390).

Full details on the blog: orchardnotes.com/2025/08/02/a...

Sounds tasty? Sounds nasty? What do you reckon?

Yeah, that one does rather take you by surprise 😁

Lucky 13 🙂
I'm hoping for a few more next year.

Absolutely! A 'Discovery' at peak ripeness is a taste sensation 😋

Text of a recipe for 'Tart de Brymlent' from The Fourme of Cury (circa 1390). Visit the link for a text-only version, and my attempt to translate the middle English recipe into something a bit more modern.

Anyone for 'Tart de Brymlent'? Here's a late-C14th recipe for a fruit pie with one rather surprising main ingredient, from 'The Fourme of Cury' (c.1390).

Full details on the blog: orchardnotes.com/2025/08/02/a...

Sounds tasty? Sounds nasty? What do you reckon?

Some very colourful plums lying on gridded paper with cleaned stones and one fruit cutting in half.

A country road running alongside a meadow. The meadow is particularly lush and green. The border collie stands at the edge of the road ahead, and there are fruit trees in the landscape behind it.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on the hunt for old plum trees. There is a project running in this state, the first of its kind to try to catalogue what varieties are remaining. They asked me to help in our region. So taking a route we seldom walk this morning, but for another reason too.

YouTube video by Freedom Forest Life - Off Grid This Fruit Tree is INSANELY PRODUCTIVE and You've Probably NEVER heard of it ... ?

Here's Dan from the Freedom Forest Life YT Channel, with a video love letter to the humble but delicious cherry plum.

More from Freedom Forest Life on YT: www.youtube.com/@freedomfore...

Purbeck Cider’s Zero and Gold Jack explores the rising demand for Low/No alcohol beverages in the UK, with a closer look at Purbeck Cider’s new Zero cider as a flavorful option.

Purbeck Cider’s Zero and Gold.
Jack explores the rising demand for Low/No alcohol beverages in the UK, with a closer look at Purbeck Cider's new Zero cider as a flavourful option.
#cider #cidre #apfelwein #perry #orchards 🥂

Typical red russeted Scarlet Crofton apple.

A bowl of windfall apples, pretty much ripe.

Stewing some apples.

Some fruit are suffering from Bitter Pit this year, something I’ve not seen on this tree before. Indicator of a nutrient deficiency, probably the result of the very dry Spring/Early Summer. I may need to water this tree in future.

A very attractive apple the Scarlet Crofton, a traditional Irish apple, though possibly raised in England.

They shouldn’t be ready quite this early but have been falling freely and taste good. Decided to stew a few of the more wholesome fallers for a not sure what just yet.

#Orchards #Apples

golden russet apples, painted by amanda almira newton, 1906

golden russet apples, painted by amanda almira newton, 1906

A bold claim l, but not an unreasonable one. I'll let you know how fully I agree once I've tried all the others 😁

Four 'discovery' apples, photographed against a wooden table top.

Apple 'Discovery' 😍

This is our entire 2025 'Discovery' crop, but 4 fruits from a 2 yr old cordon isn't bad going.

One of my favourite early season apples, they bring back happy childhood memories: hours & hours spent reading (and munching) in the branches of the tree in my Nanna's garden ☺️

A messy flower bed. On the left is a tall plant, which is one of the apple seedlings. There’s another smaller one on the right.

When we are pressing apples & pears to make cider, we do it in our front yard. Now & then an apple might escape, or get thrown into the flower bed. So now there are two apple seedlings growing there 🙂 Would love to know the mother variety, but these two will be unique/new. Will dig out and pot them.

Apple bud about to break.

For apple tree buds , winter is a period of dormancy, they were formed the previous summer and contain delicate structures protected by a tough outer layer. Enough chilling hours in winter is needed to break dormancy in the spring. Photoperiodism plays a lesser role. #apples www.teepeecider.co.nz

First pluot of the year.

Home grown "Advance" peaches. They are looking pretty good so time to test one for ripeness.

Slightly unripe cherry plums.

Slightly unripe cherry plums along a tillage field.

Very ripe cherry plums

Super ripe, deep purple Cherry plums

My wife and I are foraging for myrobalane/cherry plums. Although we have our own two trees, these are easy picking. Lots of jam being made, and I want 30kg for a co-ferment this autumn.

Redcurrants hanging from a bush.

A close up of one of the little bunches, looking like a bunch of mini grapes.

Now down to the test orchard, and the old redcurrant bushes. I used to make wine from them, but I don’t like the flavour. Getting the last few kilograms to make jam or chutney.
Rote Johannesbeeren in German, locally they are called Träuble, which means ‘little grapes’ 🍇 and you can see why 🙂

Crab apple - Malus "Pink Glow". They ain't wrong! @orchardnotes.com #OrchardGarden

This cherry tree was snapped 3yrs ago. Here's the fix:
Pack crushed garlic over wound, held with woven bandage. Remove bandage & garlic paste after 2-3 days.
Splint break together with hessian bandage. Remove bandage after 5-6 wks
Place a mini sports cone on the trunk above wound to keep rain off

Young fruit trees in long dry grass under a grey sky

Rosy green apples on a thin branch

A single green pear amongs a mass of leaves

A pair of hazel nuts on a twig

Fruit and Nut Municipal Orchard in #Leicester’s #WesternPark, planted by schoolchildren from New College, once dubbed the ‘worst school in Britain’. Early years but the crop is coming, #apples, #pear and #hazels @tomemurtha.bsky.social @municipaldreams.bsky.social @rideleicester.bsky.social

Seeking Information on a 'Hundred Ha'penny' Apple | Orchard Notes I have a bit of a mystery that I'm hoping to solve. Perhaps you can help?

I'm seeking information on an apple that may, or may not, be called 'Hundred Ha'Penny'. If you have any knowledge, clues, or best of all actual print sources that mention such an apple (or another fruit by the same name) then I'd love to hear from you.

Back-story: orchardnotes.com/2025/07/20/s...

Two small bowls of plums

This year's harvest of Utility and Black Prince plums, both Bedfordshire varieties from the last century. Trees are still small hence modest quantities!

The wasps reliably inform me that Utility is sweeter than Black Prince, and a few excessively nibbled fruit have been left for them...

I'm very excited to see sandy muddy "doors" covering these canes. It was all leaf coverings last year.

I wonder what they are? Any guesses?

The theory definitely works though, we have guests for the second year running.