Immature Fruit, Blossom and Wild Garlic

Bluebells and Wild Garlic are flooding the woodland borders with colour and pungent aromas, Apple and Pear blossom is filling the trees. If you pop down to the Mansbridge Community Orchard, you will be able to see where all the trees are located.

The weather has changed here; we have even had flurries of snow and nights of frost, which has been a shock because of the unseasonably warm March that this year brought us.

Regardless of the chill that has been in the air, the early blossom is now developing into immature fruit. However, you will will be unlikely to notice this ripening bounty unless you are actively looking for it.

Even though the Plum flowers first, the Cherries will win the race to maturity and they will normally be the first fresh fruit that we pick in June, followed by the Plums in July. Needless to say, we will be keeping an eye on the progress of our favourite trees.

This weekend we will visit Butser Ancient Farm to enjoy a Beltain celebration and help burn a gigantic wicker man. I cannot think of a better way to welcome in May. Soon we will be spotting Elderflower and the sun will be warming our faces.

In the meantime, we have been reminding ourselves of last year's glorious Summer sunshine by making hot Mulberry compote, using our frozen stash, and drizzling it over ice cream!

Young Fruit and Elderflower

Cherries

I have been very busy during my lunch hour trips around Segensworth, and fortunately the weather has been welcoming. I have been keeping tabs on where the various fruit trees are located, tagging them as they blossomed on the Falling Fruit map. Here, you can see that I have surrounded the grim grey industrial estate with an abundance of fabulous fruit trees.

Plums

When you use this method during the Spring, you always need to revisit the sites to be sure that young fruits are following the flowers. It can be difficult to spot immature fruit initially, because it is camouflaged very effectively by the green leaves.

Apple Blossom

It's a little early yet to tell whether the army of Apple trees that I have spotted will eventually produce good fruit. many of them may turn out to be Crab Apples, which can also be used in many interesting ways.

Elder Flower

At the Urbane Forager, the first things we pick each year are Elder-flowers. We make cool Cordial and chaotic Champagne from these delicately scented ivory blooms.

Cherries

Elderflower drinks are soon followed by waves of sweet, dark Cherries, and then bucket loads of multi-coloured wild plums. Hopefully, Summer will be in full swing by this time. 

Plums

It always pays to be as well prepared and you can do this too by utilising our free Seasonal id Cheat Sheets. These handy aids have also been redesigned and included in the forthcoming Urbane Forager book.

Cherry, Apple and Pear Blossom

"I know very little about the distance between stars or about the motives of Pepys, but I can always smell the Summertime at the latest by early Spring."

This evocative little lyric comes form an obscure song that I enjoyed as a teenager. It has always stayed with me and seems to become more pertinent with time.

Cherry Blossom

We are experiencing an unseasonably warm April, not that I'm complaining. The Cherry trees have been springing into flower and the blossom filled branches are stretching skywards. Pruned Cherry trees are normally kept to a few metres height but they can reach far further when left to their own devices.

It Will be Difficult to Pick These Cherries

Cherries are a native tree in the UK but it never ceases to amaze me how many there are in the parks, woodland and hedgerows. We started spotting the florid limbs poking up through the hedges along the motorway recently, not that I advocate advising picking them from the verges of arterial roads. 

Cherry Blossom

Cherries are the first fruits that we pick in the Summer. There are plenty to be found in the city's lovely parks and the pavements of quiet streets. We even pick them from industrial estates at the weekends, when they become peaceful places.

Pear Blossom (I Believe)

The exceptional Spring weather is also bringing Apple and Pear trees into bloom, which makes me think that I should organise a Blossom Walk at the Mansbridge Community Orchard fairly soon.

In other news... We have finished putting the final touches to the new Urbane Forager book and will soon have an approximate release date for you. This blog has received over 100,000 page views and now contains over 250 posts! A Great Big Fat Thank You to all our readers, please tell your friends and help spread the word...

Mansbridge Community Orchard Blossom Walk

The Blossom Walk, through Mansbridge Community Orchard was a great success. It was announced at pretty short notice but plenty of people still turned up and the weather was as good as we could have wished for. Mayflies were flapping lazily over the river and sparrows were flitting out to grab them for tea.

We met on the old stone bridge over the Itchen River. While we were waiting for walkers, we spotted several interesting birds, including a Sparrow-hawk and a Hobby, scanning for prey. On the river we saw a pair of geese with goslings.

We had friends and representatives from many interested parties and volunteers. The Woodcraft Folk have taken a very active interest in the orchard since the outset and have mapped the area and organised a very successful Apple Day event last year. Local photographer Bob Painton was on hand too, with his big lens.

After a leisurely catch up chat with everyone on the bridge, we soon set off and cut through, into Mansbridge Meadow. We then breached the deer barrier and crossed into the fen area alongside the river.

The blossom on the apple trees made them very easy to spot, some were more accessible than others but all of them looked quite splendid. I recommend exploring the area, even if you were unable to attend the official walk. Sometimes, when you get deeper into the woods, it is hard to believe that you are still in Southampton but of course, we were here to check out the fruit trees.

So far this year we have been spending our time keeping brambles and ivy out of the apple trees.  Now, with the help of the bloom we can see even more trees, which we had overlooked previously. Hopefully, we will have a good crop of fruit this year and after the harvest, we can get on with the business of pruning some of the trees.

Several volunteers offered to help with this on-going work and this has been facilitated by a grant from the Airport Community Fund, with which we are buying more tools. The pruning work will increase the amount of light that enters the canopy and improve air circulation, which will help prevent disease and improve productivity.

Orchard Blossom Walk (Short Notice!)

We are organising an impromptu Blossom Walk in the Mansbridge Community Orchard this Saturday, May 18^th. Apologies for the short notice but the late Spring and erratic weather has not helped. Also, as the next two suitable weekends fall in half-term, many will not be able to make these dates.

Everyone is welcome (including children) but we will be walking over rough and potentially muddy ground and possibly through some woods.  We will meet on the old (A27) stone bridge over the River Itchen, between the White Swan Pub (where parking is available) and the Pitch and Putt course at 2:00 pm (whatever the weather).

Wear sensible clothing and footwear, and please remember that this is an informal event and everyone is responsible for their own (and their children’s safety).

If the weather is good, we will have a lovely walk through the fruit trees, which are far easier to spot when they are in blossom. Feel free to bring a picnic blanket, cucumber sandwiches and lashings of lemonade.

During the walk we will collect contact details of anyone willing and interested in volunteering any time or skills to help the orchard as we continue progressing with this lovely project.

Mansbridge Community Orchard Update

Thanks to backing from Southampton Airport Community Fund, we have been able to buy new tools and equipment for use in the Mansbridge Community Orchard. We may also need to get some professional training.

We have purchased pruning equipment; loppers, saws etc as well as picking tools. Renovating a neglected orchard, with many mature trees, will be a lengthy and on-going commitment. It will take several years to get the main trees into a decent state and longer still to sort out the less accessible areas.

In the Autumn, the real fun begins. We will begin to reap the rewards of the project; we will need to buy more fruit picking and collecting gear to help us gather the apples. We also aim to purchase processing kit, like a nice big fruit crusher and a lager cider press.

The Orchard is beginning to flower now and we must organise another Blossom Walk (provided these gales don't blow it all away). Last year we had perfect weather for the walk and had a great turn out. It is the ideal way to get to know the orchard and to familiarise the locations of all the various trees. It is much easier to recognise the fruit trees, when they are covered in bloom. It will also be a good opportunity to recruit more volunteers who want to help manage and get involved with all the other activities in the orchard.

Spring Flowers

Most people associate Spring with blossom and flowers.  But the seasons do not suddenly change, rather they segue, sliding from one into the other and occasionally back again. However, the wheel turns relentlessly and the more times we see it rotate, the more we become acquainted with the sequence.

Although the months slip and slide and what happens during their passage can vary; within a tolerance, we can predict, roughly, what will appear at a given time.

January brings delicate snowdrops, for the galanthophiles.

February fetches up the shifting colours of crocuses.

March trumpets in yellow daffodils on the roadsides and then Blackthorn (Sloe) and Plum blossom in the hedgerows and trees . Having said this, I have already seen my first Plum blossom of 2013 and recently in Devon we saw a deligtful roadside bank with Snowdrops, Crocuses and Daffodills all in bloom at once.

April fills the woodland floor with Bluebells and Cherry blossom bursts from the trees.

April-May brings the Apple & Pear blossom as Spring eventually draws to a close. May-Day heralds the start of the Summer; with Elderflowers, ready to be turned into champagne and cordial.

Something else for me to point out, is that I'm still eating delicious apples that we picked last September/October and stored in our shed!