Applefest and Garden Harvesting.
Every year we go to the Tenbury Wells Applefest - the blues band Tim plays with always perform and I get to have a mooch around the fab stalls and witness the celebration of the humble but rather marvelous apple. We live in a part of the UK known for its orchards, cider and perry making and hop yards so it is always a fantastic show.
There are hundreds of apple varieties, some unique to certain villages and towns as well as the more familiar types you can buy in the supermarket — eating apples, cooking apples, perry pears and all the wonderful products that are made using them from cakes to Christmas decorations! As we entered the main show marquee, the aroma was great too, the epitome of autumn and the colours, shapes and sizes of all the varieties is so beautiful. I imagine the local growers picking their prize specimens, wrapping them carefully and bringing them to the festival with so much care to dispay and ultimately promote the diversity of this amazing fruit. There is also a flourishing cider industry of course with plenty of tasting opportunities. Countryside based, traditional produce is just the best!
Back home in the garden things are staring to slow down, we have picked the last of the cucumbers and cleared the plants away to make room for planting out the swedes, garlic will be going next to them in due course. I also harvested the last of the cherry tomatoes - red and green - and brought them into the house. In a basket by the window the green ones are turning red and I am picking them out daily so hopefully we will have them for a while longer in salads and pasta dishes. The outdoor tomatoes are beautiful, but are not ripening much now so they will be picked and probably used for chutney.
The space in the greenhouse that the cherry toms were using will be free to store the fuchsias and pelargoniums over winter…..and there are quite a few!
Also on the list for the last crop of the season were the grapes, two good bunches left so they have been cut and are being steadily eaten, they are so sweet!
Our one and only marrow was picked and eaten, we decided to leave one on the plant to see how big it grew and were not disappointed! I cut it into rings and stuffed them with a bolognese type mixture which was absolutely yummy.
So, more clearing and replanting is on the cards for this week between the rain showers, see you soon!