Questions for Nature.
Why did last spring have to be so good? Why has my apple tree produced several tons of apples? Why are my apple pies so good? Why are my trousers so tight?
Have resorted to large crate in lane at bottom of drive "please help yourself" . Two wheel barrows full today and still the tree is bending under the load. HELP!
I wish I lived closer to you. I would relieve you of some!!!!
Stocking up for a bad winter?
Pity you cant bring them to the conference.
If you find an answer, I'd like one for a similar situation with tomatoes! I have given so many away now, that people are starting to run away when they see me with my trusty 'trug'. First year I've ever grown tomatoes from seed, and every single seed grew. I felt so guilty discarding them that all 18 plants found a space on my allotment. Now approaching 100lbs of tomatoes since the beginning of August, with at least the same amount still ripening! Can't make cider with tomatoes unfortunately!!
Third gallon of tomato soup done yesterday. Boil daily and it keeps for ages. Lunch, supper etc are all provided for.
Apples, blackberries, elderberries, damsons, wasps.
Cook them up put into freezer bags squash flat stack one on top of the other and you have pie filling apple sauce for the year wish I lived near you
What I do is put the apple into the shallow takeaway plastic trays with lids and freeze. Easy to stack that way and the apple is nicely compressed and nicely shaped. When frozen cut in half so that they are one portion size and then put each half in a sainsburys basic freezer bag because they are nice and then. Then stack inside one of the ordinary freezer bags. Keeps well, stacks nicely and minimises freezer space.
Might sound a bit silly but sometimes it's easier to sell things than give them away. Can you attach an honesty box (securely) to somewhere near the crates with a sign saying 'Dime a dozen' or whatever?
Obviously doesn't matter if some people don't pay, and you might get enough in your 'honesty box' to buy some other fruits you don't have.
I had the best apples this year too but unfortunately the pesky parakeets we have in this area have eaten most of them, grrrr. Did manage to freeze a few bags.
Brenda🐝
Our trees are loaded too but two of them have the scab! Very sad...
I used to bring them in to work (a college) and distributed loads that way. Now retired, and in small flat with 'patio' garden, so no trees. Lots of herbs on window sills, though.
PatAF/Pat.
What a difference 300 miles make! We had the coldest, windiest spring I can remember - ruined the blossoms on berries and cherries - our normally good harvest was non-existent this year.
Wish I lived close. My rhubarbs were the same, neighbours have benefitted, we have rhubarb jam, muffins, crumbles you name it. Apples would make a change. 😊😜
Drink up 'deziderrrrr'
Bob,
I seem to recall reading somewhere about Olde English folklore that this forebodes a bad, hard winter ! Not a mild, damp or wet winter but one which is to be very cold, ice, frost and snow .... et al !
Down here in the deep south west of Cornwall (near Penzance) I've noticed certain types of small trees, bushes with shedloads of red berries on. Not into trees/bushes etc so I have no idea what they are but at the moment they are studded with little red dots .... and no I've not been drinking - yet! and have just got new spectacles. Lol!
I've not noticed this in the last 4 years since we've been down here.
John
Elderberry bouey?
John absolutely right - hence my comment stocking up for winter!!!
I also noticed at the beginning of last weekend that a lot of the oak trees round here (a few miles north of London) had started shedding their acorns. I don't ever recall that happening as early as that before. I do remember the bad winter of 1963 but not the Autumn that preceded it.
Everything on our farm has grown well this year, so much grass don't know what to do with it. I have actually been topping (mowing) some just to keep it down instead of grazing it. Could do with twice as many sheep, even now.
Guess it was last winter which was warm and relatively dry, round here at least (midlands UK).
Koll
Why don't you store some of them? We have a Bramley tree that regularly produces a good crop. We wrap them individually in newspaper and store them in a cool place on flat boxes obtained free from the local supermarket. Most are usable until the following March. Inspect them regularly and remove bad ones.
Slightly more off topic!!
This evening I was cooking a pan load of apples from next door and got distracted by the phone so they were on too high longer. Some of the "condensation with fine apple" escaped through the lid, went down the side of the pan and onto the induction job. Not much but enough to crystallise on the job for half the pan circumference and from 2mm to 10mm away. The apples were cooked without adding any water.
Any idea as how to remove the crystallised Apple? Doesn't work with hot water?
A sharp blade held flat on the surface to scoop it off gently without scratching?
Er - are apples any good for AF?
Bob, do you ship to the US ? Haha!
Count yourself lucky BobD, here in the south of England our apple trees are almost barren. Out of six trees of various varieties, I will be lucky to get a bucket full.
Slightly off topic
Bit off topic 
Off topic- fires in France and elsewhere overseas
edoxaban and topical diclofenic gel?
