John's Blog

Back in 2013, I think it was back then, we planted some fruit trees in what is called the New Orchard which lies just to the north of the Castle. The Orchard isn’t new, it appears on some old maps under that name, however there were a few very old trees in there and so we planted a range of local varieties. This year those trees were looking to be full of fruit.

It was a very wet Friday

There was a need to sample the fruit before we started picking.

Some fruit was easy to get at and even with step ladders others were out of reach.

The fruit we couldn’t reach was brought to the soft grassy floor by giving the trees a good shake.

It didn’t take long to fill the crates with fruit.

Two runs in the Gator had Apples quickly displayed and on sale in the Shop.

The varieties we picked were Yellow Ingestre, Pitmaston Pineapple and Captain Tom. We also picked some of the Hendre Huffcap Perry Pears; now its time to make some Perry in time for Christmas.

The Perry Pears were turned into a mash so they could be pressed

The press squeezed enough to fill three demijohns.