Easy Apple Gallette - French Apple Tarte

Apple Gallette

Credit for this very easy and quick recipe goes to our friend Sian. This will work well with apples or pears.The best apples to use are Belle de Boskoop [ used throughout France for apple tarte] but any firm aromatic variety will work well.[Suntan,Ribston Pippin,Cox,King of the Pippins etc.]

Belle de Boskoop a large dessert / cooking apple from Holland ...quite tart

 Pears,if used want to be a touch under ripe Conference is as good as any. 

Other ingredients ;

1.Just Roll Puff Pastry

Roll out Thin

2.Carnation Caramel 

Commonly Available

Apply thinly and sprinkle with salt to counter the sweetness

3.Apricot Jam

Thin the apricot jam to a glaze by adding water and warming gently

Peel and slice the apples arrange semi circles neatly, you can probably do better than this

Why not make one for the freezer

Glaze with the jam and bake until golden brown

Put the kettle on

An Apple Affair -Trained Fruit at West Dean Sussex

Don't miss a definitive Apple Day at West Dean in Sussex

One of the best places to see what can be achieved by training fruit are The Gardens of West Dean College near Chichester in Sussex www.westdean.org.uk.The gardens feature two restored kitchen gardens of the late Victorian period;the restoration is largely the work to Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain it has been beautifully done to the last detail.

Apples and Pears trained on free-standing metal framework edged with neatly trimmed Buxus'Suffructicosa'

Comice Pear trained as a Goblet

Conference trained as a pyramid

Much of the trained fruit has been inspired from the gardens of Versailles, these newly trained apples have been tied in to thick copper wire left over by the electrian

The pear walkway produces a huge crop of excellent quality as the branches are not conjested and the air can flow freely around the fruit reducing scab and brown rot

Excellent fruit quality - close-up of conference on espalier at Wisley

Double apple cordons trained to criss-cross, rubbing branches could eventually graft naturally, they havnt yet done so here

A fan trained Merryweather Damson - of age

In the glasshouses trained fruit includes melons, figs,vines,peaches and many many varieties of heritage tomatoes as cordons-to make your mouth water

General Principles of Training Apples and Pears  

1.Horizontally trained branches are fruitful, vertical branches produce wood and not fruit much. With this in mind to fill the space to be trained vertical growth is encouraged, as the space is filled growth can be tied down to produce fruit.

2. Autumn is a good time to pull down vertical growth produced in the summer so that it will bear fruit buds the following year.

 3.Summer pruning of established trained fruit reduces growth and encourages next 

years fruit. This because it shocks the tree by removing leaves and it exposes the wood to sunlight which initiates fruit bud.

4.Winter pruning will encourage growth so should only be used on young trees to fill the 

cropping space or to rejuvenate older trees where there is not enough vigour. Of course pruning can be employed at anytime to remove diseased wood especially canker,don't delay on this one.

5.Remember trained fruit can be developed into almost any shape you like although you might have read the gardening books and magazines the fruit trees havnt, they don't know the 

difference between a cordon,espalier,palmette,fan,goblet,or a pyramid.And don't forget 

tripovers or are they called stepovers.

Katie gets a new Bike on the nursery

www.adamsappletrees.co.uk

In order to get our apple trees to grow straight they all require tying in to a cane. We grow many thousands of fruit trees each year so this can mean alot of bending; but we think we have the answer......

Katie Worker of the month on Our new bike...mid July

Katie down amongst the trees

Katie tying in the trees....no bending

All the trees this year should be nice and straight thanks to Katie and her bike

Recognising and treating Canker on Apple trees

www.adamsappletrees.co.uk 

Fungal Canker is a common problem on apple and pears especially in the wetter west of the U.K.

It will infect young twigs in the Spring and cross infect to older wood, it can infect the trunk and rarely it will kill a tree. On the positive side older trees badly infected will often fruit well, as the tree is put under pressure where the sap flow is constricted, it can infect fruit and effect storage qualities.

Look out for young stems/leaves dying back, this was in July but it can occur from Spring onwards

Stem infection is more noticeable in wet weather

The stem becomes constricted and growth beyond dies back 

The cure - a multi - pronged attack is required

1.Recognise and remove on a regular basis, in the west of Britian check trees monthly, remove any infected wood  cutting back a foot from the infection at least. Burn the wood removed, treat cut surfaces either with 10% bleach, or use armillatox from a garden centre, or rub wound with soil[this contains so many competing organisms the fungal canker is crowded out]. Treat secateurs with 10% bleach  dip between cuts.

2.Encourage strong hard growth, regular pruning of apple and pear trees rejuvenates trees and keeps them healthy, though excessive winter pruning will give too much growth and little fruit. Summer pruning is good in August to encourage fruiting and remove unwanted growth.
Dont overfeed apple and pear trees with fertiliser, or even manure, as this encourages sappy growth prone to canker infection.

3.Apply Lime, calcium applied in the form of ground limestone or garden lime encourages hard growth resistant to infection. It also improves fruit storage. On sandy soils apply lime every year on clay soils every other year. For a young tree a few years old a few good handfuls, for a large mature tree half a bucket. Sprinkle a handful of lime on the soil used when backfilling around a newly planted apple tree.

4.Choosing the right tree, some varieties are more susceptible to fungal canker than others. Bramley has been shown to be resistant, Spartan more susceptible.


5.Live with canker under control,doing all of the above will greatly reduce fungal canker and keep trees healthy. Older trees may have a lot of infection that cannot easily be pruned away, though paring with a sharp knife and treating as above [point number 1.] will help. In the long term keeping older trees and living with canker can be more acceptable than loosing the tree, they maybe fruiting well. There is evidence that trees will heal over cankerous wounds.

www.adamsappletrees.co.uk

International Craft Cider Festival - Rocks

Adams Apples took a stand last weekend at the FIRST International craft cider Festival near Caerphilly

Jess and Rowan [Daughters of Adam] on the Adams Apples Stand set up and waiting for business

The Northern Ireland Brothers want to give up the day job to major in their sweet cider business

Normandy Perry naturally carbonated this one slips down

These Normandy craft ciders can only be made in small quantities on the farm

Bill Bleasdale with the pony tail - amazing guy lives up a mountain, grows cider apples ,makes cider, sells trees ,builds and restores old cider presses and has written a terrific book 'Grow Apples and Make Cider' check out his website www.welshmountaincider.com..........he also makes stained glass...GO BILL

Rachel Matthews show organiser [Apples growing from her dress], Andy Hallet show sponsor.........Thanks for a good weekend

Expensive £7/bottle but worth it

Saturday Morning ,before drinking began ,visit Caerphilly Castle

 .......its enormous

It is hardwork but the tasting of the cyder must go on.............My favourite Black Dragon Cider make with Kingston Black and nothing else

What to do with Morgan Sweet ?

Probably the earliest ripening cider apple variety is Morgan Sweet, this season it is ripe in August.
Pressed now it will make a sweet cider ready for Christmas. But to make a blend one is short of tannin and acidity. Foxwhelp, a vintage variety, is also an early ripening variety and is a bittersharp, so this could make a good blend. Some new varieties developed by Liz Copas for early ripening, Hastings [Bittersweet], Gilly [Bittersharp] could also be used.
Another alternative might be to juice the early fruit chill or freeze it to blend with later varieties in October.

Early Apples...Ready Now

Favourable weather has allowed early ripening of some varieties, whilst we are still in July.

A sweet red dessert apple George Cave has a crisp white flesh and is great to eat now off the tree.

George Cave - really sweet !

For cooking apples a large cooker cooking to a froth, needs a bit of sweetening, Scotch Dumpling

 

 

Scotch Dumpling Apple on the tree

Scotch Dumpling in the Kitchen

This Apple tree has the best blossom in Spring, apples cook to a froth

Pest Damage on Fruit Trees - Aphids[Greenfly]

Look for Symptoms of attack on Fruit Trees - twisted young growth, curled leaves with aphids on the underside, black mould on leaves , presence of ants on the stems

 In Spring and Summer aphids feed on the sap of  fruit trees, damaging the young growth . They enjoy young and soft  growth. The adults arrive on the young growth of fruit trees traveling miles on hot air currents.
During warm weather a small colony will soon become an infestation as they multiply rapidly.
Populations can increase more than tenfold in a week as they produce live young[no egg involved] and no
fertisation is required.They inject enzymes into the plant to digest the sap, this distorts growth. They excrete waste sugars and this grows black mould on leaves and stems of fruit trees.Ants often feed on the sugar as do bees.

Distorted stem curled leaves

Treatment -Specific chemicals targeting aphids are usually very quick and effective, these generally contain  
 Pirimicarb .General insecticides should be avoided as these kill benefical insects like Ladybird larvae and
 preditory mites etc..
 For low environment impact, several sprays of soft soap solution are effective.
 Look at your trees often
 Now you know what you are looking for, spot it early, and treat the damage will be greatly lessened.

The difference between a good gardener and an average one...is one week
 
Often aphid populations decline naturally due to predators[birds included], weather, the growth becomes
tougher and less palatable. On young trees the damage can be serious,as trees get bigger the damage is less significant , it can be pruned out without affecting tree shape or yield.

Young growth damaged BUT once sprayed growing away

 In our polytunnels at Adams Apples we use introduced parasitic wasps that keep aphid damage to a
 minimum. To an extent these build up in the summer on our outside Fruit Trees, but one or two sprays are generally required to grow nice straight Apple Trees.

Windbreaks for Orchards

Shelter but not shade is generally good for orchards.

• It raises the springtime temperatures encouraging bees, pollination, and fruit set 

• It reduces windrock of trees in the winter that can lead to tree death, in the Autumn it reduces fruit fall

Shelterbelt trees need careful choice, they can themselves harbour diseases[Poplar for example is a host to canker], they can take up too much space [conifers increase in width and are not easily trimmed].

The hedge on the left is Red Alder [Alnus rubra] before trimming 15/7/2011

 Alders tick alot of the boxes as they leaf early and can be trimmed tight they can be reduced in height when too tall.

After trimming top and sides using a hedge trimmer and loppers

The Orchard is on the other side of the trimmed shelter now reduced from 4.5metres to 2.5metres

This bright red hedge[Photinia 'Red Robin'] is used on our nursery to provide shelter for our plants growing in pots

Summer Pruning of Apple Trees

Before 15th July note long whippy growth

Afterwards long growth removed to three leaves exposing fruit and wood to the sun

July and August are the best times to complete summer pruning of apple and pear trees both in the orchard and  trained cordons and espaliers.Fruit will be ripening and swelling in size, pruning the extension growth that has arisen this season will expose the fruit to ripen fully in the sun ,achieving its full colour and sweetness.
In addition this pruning exposes the tree's wood to the sun which will create more fruit bud for next year.
By pruning in late summer the trees energy is sapped because leaves are removed this shocks the tree into fruit production for next year, so even where there is not a heavy crop this type of pruning will encourage an unproductive tree to bear fruit.
Pruning in the winter time can result in vigorous growth, summer pruning slows growth and encourages fruit production.
www.adamsappletrees.co.uk