Although
we haven't started the main renovation yet (we are thinking about ideas, I
promise!), we have done some things around the house & garden.
The first thing we tackled was the fruit trees in the garden. When we viewed the house back in February we were aware that there were a lot of trees, but didn't realise just how many of these were fruit. So this summer the garden was starting to look like a raid in the Tesco fruit aisle! There are currently two pear trees, one of which the pears grow so high there was no hope in hell of us managing to reach them. There’s a greengage tree, but unfortunately the squirrels are rather fond of these so we didn’t get a look in! Apple tree wise we have a selection of both eating and cooking apple trees, and there are seven of these in total two of which didn’t fruit this year. So as you can imagine it was like apple wonderland.
We have some friends, Rob and Sarah, who have started there own business (The Kitchen Swanscoe) making juices, jams and biscuits (the fudge is amazing). So we asked if they wanted to come and help us collect the apples in return of some of them, as there was just no way that we could use / store them all. By a random coincidence they had just started an initiative called The Random Apple Company.
The first thing we tackled was the fruit trees in the garden. When we viewed the house back in February we were aware that there were a lot of trees, but didn't realise just how many of these were fruit. So this summer the garden was starting to look like a raid in the Tesco fruit aisle! There are currently two pear trees, one of which the pears grow so high there was no hope in hell of us managing to reach them. There’s a greengage tree, but unfortunately the squirrels are rather fond of these so we didn’t get a look in! Apple tree wise we have a selection of both eating and cooking apple trees, and there are seven of these in total two of which didn’t fruit this year. So as you can imagine it was like apple wonderland.
We have some friends, Rob and Sarah, who have started there own business (The Kitchen Swanscoe) making juices, jams and biscuits (the fudge is amazing). So we asked if they wanted to come and help us collect the apples in return of some of them, as there was just no way that we could use / store them all. By a random coincidence they had just started an initiative called The Random Apple Company.
So
on the last Bank Holiday Monday in May August (I appear to be losing my mind and track of time!!), they appeared all ready to go to pick
some apples and pears. We decided to
start with the largest tree (which was a fantastic idea as we were totally
knackered after this!!). The first thing
was to pick up all the apples from the ground and put the rotten ones in a
spare water butt that had been left with the house, this was to stop us picking
up the same ones all the time. Due to
the size of our largest apple tree (estimated at 150 years old), we couldn’t
shake it by pushing and could reach to ‘poke’ the apples. So Mr A and Rob from The Random Apple Company
tried to get higher into the tree using a ladder….
….
This didn’t fully work, so Mr A gamely climbed into the tree and started to
‘ride’ the tree, which worked much better and it started to rain apples!
It
was a most productive day’s work and we got as much as possible off the trees,
there’s still a lot left that didn’t want to fall off. So I’m still going out at the weekends to
collect the rotten fruit and am still trying to pass apples on to anyone and
everyone that I know!!
So
the photos below show the outcome of the day in relation to apples and pears,
the first is the volume of rotten fruit we managed to collect from the
ground…..
….
and finally the fruit (and Rob) in the trailer waiting to go to back to The
Random Apple Company base.
In
other non-renovation related news, my little sister has encouraged me to take part
in a sewalong for the Vogue 1419 Coat!
I
am a total beginner when it comes to sewing (I can do minor repairs) but am so very
taken with the style of the coat I’m going to give it ago, so we shall see how
I get on. I’ll never keep up with the
sewalong but hopefully I will manage to get it finished. Although time could be a massive issue -
work, travel, Hybrid 9 band stuff, house renovation, normal day-to-day house related
stuff and running (I did the Chester half marathon this year and am hoping to
do another next year)!! The way I see
if, if you’re not maxed out to the edge, then you’re not doing life properly!
If
there’s anybody out there, bye for now!
Netty
J
P.S.
Hello to my first follower on BlogLovin you made my day on Thursday! J
P.P.S. We took the stud wall in the music room out
this weekend, but more on that later!
Hello! Very jealous of your beautiful back garden and all those apples! I hope lots of them have made their way into lovely home baked goods :) also looking forward to coat progress ....I'm cross stitching a christmas stocking at the moment but I think I will have to get someone else to turn it into a stocking as I'm terrible at 'actual' sewing! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteJessica
Hi Jessica,
DeleteMany thanks for reading. So far apples have been used for pies, crumble, chutney, apple juice & cider :) I'm still not sure how I'm going to do with the coat, but all I can do is try. Have you looked in Hobbycraft, I think they have ready made stocking :)
Oh my gosh, look at all that fruit!
ReplyDeleteI think I'd really love a fruit tree of some sort in our garden but no way have the patience to collect the actual fruit haha One day maybe!
Karen x
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by. I know what you mean about having to pick the fruit up all the time, I'm thinking of trying netting them next year, we'll have to see how that goes! You could always try a dwarf fruit tree, I think you can grow them in pots :)