No Problem

The topsy-turvey, stange, mixed-up year rolls on. We went to the orchard and did some harvesting. On the 4th August? Oh no you didn't. Oh yes we did. The earliest apples, that I mentioned on 28th July, 'Red George Cave', are now falling from the tree. We took all we think we can use or give away, but it's a tiny proportion. We will go back for another picking, but many will fall. We cannot pick and keep them; early apples are best straight from the tree. Within a week their acidity and cell structure is lost - they become bland and fluffy

At one time, I worried about the waste, but something (insect, mammal, micro-organism) will eat many of them, or they will release their nutrients back to the soil and keep the annual cycle going. In most years, many of the first apples from a tree have been hastened to ripeness by codling moth - a caterpillar that drills a hole from the surface to the core and provokes bruising and rotting. This year we have yet to find a damaged apple. Blackbirds have pecked a little at one or two, but the fruit is otherwise perfect

This is an 'Early Transparent Gage', the earliest plum, and also ripe. It is always beautiful, sometimes misted with a fine coating of yeast, that is less developed this year (there is a hint of it in the extra). Fresh, it is sweet and juicy; cooking releases acidity (I don't know why) that makes it perfect for pies and crumbles, or just in a bowl with something dairy. Plums get their own moth that is exactly analogous to codling moth but, again, not this year

Apples and plums both attract wasps, of course. Picking can be hazardous. A plum that looks perfect can be a facade hiding depredation, or even a hollow shell; an apple can hide four or five invaders. Not this year. It would be wrong to say I have seen no wasps: this week I have seen two, one caught in a spider's web

So all the fruit is perfect; that's good news, isn't it? Isn't it?