2022

It has been another busy year for us. Our daughter has been preparing for university and our son is out of school and into college. I'm delighted to say that we do still have plenty of fun picking fruit together, and we always enjoy getting out and about in the Autumn months to see what we can find.

Earlier in the year, I popped into a local school fete, and took a gamble on a random selection of chillies and peppers. They were only very young when I bought them, so I had no idea what would develop, but I'm pleased to report that they are still producing fruit in November. We already had enough chillies to make, sweet chilli jam, which is a house favourite, and the peppers are now long, yellow, pointy and sweet.

My allotment produced its normal load of delicious soft fruits but the veg (and I) struggled with the drought conditions and my lack of attention, so this will be my last year there. A sad point here, is that an apple tree, grown by our son from a pip, has been producing loads of very nice apples that keep well and are good for eating. We will leave it for the next occupant.

I am now working at the local university and have taken advantage of their beautifully landscaped campus during lunch breaks, including the mulberry tree, which produces a different fruit from the red ones we were familiar with, so I froze the fruits while I consider their best options. I think it might be a white mulberry, good for feeding silk-worms apparently. There is an interesting historical story about this, elsewhere on this blog.

During a crazy day or two in September, the kids and I went out to pick pears and apples in huge quantities, we then had a nice apple day in the garden, inviting friends and teenagers to help press and drink the golden juice, the rest is steadily fermenting into cider in my shed!

Along with my good friend Lou, we also organised an Apple Day at the Mansbridge Community Orchard. It had been a couple of years since we had been able to do hold this annual event, so we were unsure how many people would turn up. However, we soon had a substantial crowd of helpers, participants roamed off to gather fruit and returned with bags full of bounty. Back at base camp the keen team smashed and pressed the fruit into delicious juice, which was gulped down and used to fill drinks bottles to take home.

Red & Ready Summer Berries

Visiting my allotment I realised it was time to start harvesting my Summer berries. I started with the Raspberries, which always taste divine, straight off the plant.

Then I moved onto the tart little Redcurrants, which always add a bit of bite to the sweeter fruits in puddings and also help when making jam.

Then it was the Tayberries, as long as my thumb on occasions, and always a tad more risky to pick due to their fine thorns..

Finally my favourites, the lusty Loganberry, tasty sharp, sweet and large. The only drawback is that they can get over-ripe quite quickly.

I also picked some Blueberries because they were getting ripe, before returning triumphant with my large box of soft fruit, ready to be scoffed with ice cream or added to muesli for breakfast.

As I arrived home I realised that I also needed to begin harvesting my Cherries. On close inspection, I realised that something had been eating them before they were fully ripe...

I laid in wait to discover the culprit...

 

Reflections on the Fruity Constancy of Autumn

Normal is not a word that we will be using easily any time soon. The global pandemic has touched everyone probably, in numerous different ways. For me the biggest changes in the past two years have been, losing my elderly parents, and being made redundant after 15 years in one job. These two things were not directly linked to COVID-19, but they occurred during this period and added to my emotional stress levels. However, because of the pandemic, I did quickly find temporary employment, in a state of the art Coronavirus saliva testing laboratory, this was exciting, challenging, interesting and lasted for nearly a year. 

One aspect of my life that changed directly as a result of the virus was being unable to coach and train Wing Chun (Chinese kung fu), my hobby for over 30 years. I think the most significant thing that I missed was the social aspect of running a sports club. Being in frequent close proximity to people, who's company you enjoy and trust, while taking part in physical activity and learning, is tremendously beneficial to mental states and wellbeing. While we were unable to train together, I set up an online Qigong course to help people to reduce personal stress and control anxiety, while learning this solo art.

In many ways, being outside often, walking, observing nature and actively partaking in the seasonal changes, has been a consistent balm to my stress and anxiety levels during this difficult time and being aware of the ordinary changes, constantly reminds me that change is not only healthy but also is actually the only normal there can ever be.

Lots and Lots of Lovely Apples

Our children have now grown into teenagers, so their wants and needs are ever changing, but I'm pleased to say that they are still very happy to come apple picking with me in Autumn.

The Processing Begins with the Stainless Steel Spade

The kids and I along with my friend Andy picked about 300 Kgs of apples this Autumn, a really tasty haul. Lugging the heavy bags of colourful fruit up to the back of my garden, was quite enough exercise for one day.

The Delicious Juice begins to Pour

Then, one sunny weekend, Andy and I smashed, bashed, crushed and juiced the piles of apples and produced around 60 litres of delicious apple juice. It was a hard work,. but a nice (not to mention productive) way to spend the day. After our hard grafting we stored the juice in various buckets and jars in the garden shed, where it soon began to ferment into 60 litres of tasty cider. We aim to reduce this volume soon, it's taking up a lot of room in my shed!

Quite a Lot of Cider!

I also collected a good load of delicious yellow plums, which my daughter was more than happy to consume.

In November I started new employment, as a research technician at Southampton university. While wandering about during lunch hours, I kept an eye on the Medlar tree, situated near the Physics building, where I now work.

I have meddled with Medlars before, making wine and jelly but fancied something different this year. I gave a load to my friend Matt, who made nettle beer with me earlier in the year, and he produced a delightfully fruity Medlar Ale. I covered some Medlars with gin, in jars to supplement our Christmas Sloe Gin. We picked bags of Sloes during a much needed break on the Isle of Wight, and I can now testify that Medlar liquor is just as fruity as Sloe Gin, with a unique and distinctly different flavour and colour.

With my remaining Medlars, I produced Medlar fruit cheese or fruit leathers (as the recipe named them). Personally I don't think they bear any resemblance to cheese or leather, they are sweet, deliciously moist, very fruity, and they also keep remarkably well.