The Lost Orchard Of Hedge End

When I wander around Hedge End during my lunch hours, I often locate new fruit trees.

Spring is the best time to find trees which may bear fruit later on. The blossom is beautiful and is associated deep within in our psyche with romance and rejuvenation.

I found an area in a local park that was quite literally swarming with apple trees. It must have once been an old farm orchard that has been forgotten. Last year I made quite a lot of cider out of these apples and kept loads for eating through the winter too.

Other people do use the trees that are near the carpark but my picker allows me to reach the higher fruits.

It’s great fun working out which apples are the tastiest and which will keep best during winter.

Generally, I find that the earlier fruits are softer and the later/hardest fruits keep best.

People often ask me if I know what the different varieties of apple are but I niether know nor really care. Maybe one day I will have enough free time to learn a bit more about naming the fruits but for now, I'm happy to locate, pick and use them. These are mostly eating apples.

There are a couple that look Russetty but they do not taste similar at all. Almost all of the fruits are good to eat.

These red / green stripy ones are the crunchy and sweet winners in my opinion. They also keep very well.

All of these different varieties of trees can be found in a public park within an area of about 100 meters. I'm pleased to see that other people do pick them a bit more now but there are a lot still left on the trees.

Hazelnutcases - Things To Do With Kids On A Rainy Day

It was just about the last day of the summer holidays; it was blowing a gale, raining hard and the children were bouncing off the walls.

What should we do?

7Kgs, Not a Bad Little Haul, Note the Apples & Pears Too

Call me crazy but I thought it was a great day for collecting hazelnuts, and as it transpired I was right.

We visited a spot close to where I work. Here the nuts fall onto the pavement, and despite the weather we gathered about 7Kgs in about half an hour. My children worked like squirrels and were delighted by the amount of goodies brought down by the storm.

The Squirrels Removing the Leafy Bits

While we were out, I noticed that some of my favourite apples were falling in the wind, so I grabbed a few of the ripest fruits while my kids, bless em, slipped off to play on the swings in the pouring rain. I got about 9Kgs of the tastiest eaters.

Sorted For Hazel/Cob Nuts

Of course everything was a bit wet when we got home, so we stripped the leafy bits off and then put the nuts and our soaking clothes in the airing cupboard to dry off.

The Usual Suspects For Filberts, Hazel or Cob Nuts

My Usual Suspects, fruit and (now) nut line-ups are becoming a definitive feature of the Urbane Forager blog. The main purpose they serve is to demonstrate the variety of shapes and colours within a species. Cob/Hazelnuts/Filberts are no exception; some are big and round some are small and pointy, some are flatter and some are triangular but they all taste good to eat.

The Usual Suspects Eating Apples - They All Taste Different and Great

Here is another one for the apples we collected this day, they all taste quite unique but these apples (and nuts) were all gathered from a tiny area, within about 30m of each other.