Morpeth Food Festival & Picking Apples

Last Saturday was a great day at Morpeth Food Festival. The weather stayed fine and many people – our regulars and some new customers – turned out to give support making for a very happy atmosphere.

The weather on Sunday was also fine, very fine. So we decided to give the Orchard Field a final cut of the year. As we did not want to loose any apples from the trees, due to a potential tractor incident, Bob and I first harvested all the apples and the two pears!

It is at this time of the year that we reacquaint ourselves with the variety of apples our trees produce. We become more confident, saying which is which apple, as the year goes on. My favourite is the ‘Rajka’…a crisp, juicy, rosy apple. The most prolific this year has been ‘Greensleeves’ which is a large, pale-green juicy apple. We also have ‘Bright Future’, ‘Spartan’, ‘Egremont Russet’, ‘Fortune’ and a ‘Coxes’ apple.

The best of these apples we will store and sell through the box scheme and markets. Those apples which are not sold direct will be juiced. The day we juice is always a fun day for Bob and I.

The apples are picked and washed. The juicing area has been cleaned. The equipment set-up and ready. The bottles are ready to be filled. The labels printed.

Oooo! And the grass did get cut!

Ann