Fruit Crumble, Here We Come
Poets Cottage : October 2011
It’s always nice when someone gives you something homemade isn’t it?
Only last week, the gentleman who supplies Poet’s Cottage with concrete birdbaths and ornaments, brought us two jars of homemade jam…..golden gage and strawberry. They had a glut of fruit and there was plenty for everyone.
This year seems to have been unusually good for fruit trees. Apple trees are heavily laden, pears are in good supply, and there’ll be plenty of plum crumble this September for sure!
So if you are planning on growing a couple of fruit trees in the garden or allotment, which variety do you choose?
Probably the most popular apple tree we sell at the moment is ‘Katy’, with Sunset as a close follower! Katy is an apple of the moment, here today and gone tomorrow, meaning it doesn’t have very long keeping qualities. However it did win first prize at Lealholm Show (its being held on the 3rd of Sept this year folks) and has the juiciest, sweetest flesh, together with a handsome shiny scarlet-red skin…hmmm, maybe that’s why it doesn’t last so long…it’s so delicious!
We also sell a lot of Red Devil, Worcester Pearmain, Red Windsor and of course, the famous Bramley cooking apple. My favourite cooker has to be Howgate Wonder. I saw a beautiful specimen at Scampston a couple of years ago and the fruit certainly lived up to its reputation of being the largest cooker! It is a bit more regular cropping than a Bramley, and cooks to a good puree.
It’s interesting that we are selling more and more trained fruit. Step-Over apples are a prime example. These are grafted onto an M27 rootstock which has a dwarfing effect on the growth. If left un-pruned, they will reach about 6ft high quite slowly, but if maintained as a Step-Over (you literally can step over them!!) you keep them low, which is great for easy picking.
We have a demonstration of these growing at Poets Cottage Shrub Nursery which were planted about 16 years ago. They are edging a bed of trees and shrubs on one side, with a flagged path on the other, They look and crop really well - a very practical idea from the victorian era. Pears also come as Step-Overs too…they are brilliant!
Fan trained and espalier fruit trees are also proving popular, which reminds me to plant a fan trained pear against the house wall at Poet’s Cottage. One of my husband’s favourite fruits (gotta keep ‘em sweet!) Everyone knows the Conference pear, so I shall plant a Concord which is also a self fertile variety. If we have a glut then there are always plenty of customers to give them away to!
Plums, Gages, Apricots, Cherries – we stock the whole job lot (even pomegranates this year!)….But whatever you choose to plant, remember we are always happy to advise you
Happy fruit picking for the future!
Best Wishes, Ilona
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