July is always an exciting time for the trees in the garden. For the big apple tree, it marks the home straight to harvest as they are usually ripe by early August. This year looks to be a bumper crop. There was very little shedding and so I’ve helped it along by picking off any very small or deformed apples when I’m in the garden doing other jobs, but it’s not a priority task and I more or less let it do its thing. This year I’m going to have a look at some preserving options for dessert apples. These are reasonably tart and crisp but they don’t store at all and are best eaten straight off the tree or within a few days of picking.
The young trees are looking a lot happier than they were earlier in the year. The cooler damper weather seems to be helping. I’m really hoping with an adequate mulching and fertilising programme over the autumn into spring that these two will produce some fruit next year.
I’m looking forward to sharing some apple recipes alongside August’s tree following update, and thank you to Squirrel Basket for hosting.
That’s a lovely apple tree! It looks like you will get a good harvest too! I always enjoy making apple crumbles with the apples from our apple tree!
Thank you! There are so many this year, they are later too, normally they’d be nearly ready and starting to drop but I think it’ll be another few weeks.
Good post and pictures. It certainly looks like you’ll have plenty of apples but it’s a shame that they don’t store well. xx
Yes, I think early dessert apples are a bit like that. But they are quite crisp and tart so I can freeze/cook with them a bit although the texture is not as good for cooking as the usual cooking apple varieties. X
That’s a lovely apple tree! Our apples don’t store that well either, though we can generally keep them at least for a month, during which time they get sweeter. We give a lot of apples away to other people
I’ve decided to have a go at making apple butter. Although they’re dessert apples, they’re quite tart and crisp so might be a good way of using some of the windfall/wormy ones!
The fruit look very healthy – good luck with your recipes 🙂