Apples

My little apple tree is weighed down with fruit. It's a Cox's Orange Pippin, and the apples are ripe enough to rattle when you shake them. This is the biggest crop the dwarf tree has ever had, and although the apples are smallish they are a good quality with just a few scratches from wind and bird testing. They are bright red on the side that gets the most sunshine.

Tree-ripened fruit is more tasty that store bought ones. These apples have a rich flavour and are snappy and juicy. What I can't eat raw will be made into puree for the freezer to be used in such goodies as Apple Roll.

It is good to get a lot of apples because the plums, apricots, raspberries and strawberries produced very little this season. There were plenty of black and red currants, but the blackbirds cleaned them up when I was sick. The greenhouse grapes are loaded as usual.