Codling moths are scared of our apple tree
WILLIAM HANSBY
There’s a gnarly apple tree in our backyard that has largely survived the ominous codling moth, but we have no idea it’s variety.
The tree looks a hundred years old and has old man moss growing off the trunk.
The apples are the best cooking apples I’ve ever tasted − many people agree − and the branches are dead-set groaning from the weight of fruit.
Riverton Heritage Harvest Festival organiser Robert Guyton once told me the best cooking apple he had ever eaten was a Belle de Boskoop, made into an apple crumble. But mine is better (I believe), especially when added to stewed feijoa.
My one, I’ll call Old Man Moss Beard for now, is so sweet and stews so easily as well, just add a splash of water. However, I know one day I’m going to have to get down to Riverton in March with my unknown apple in hand to have it properly identified by the festival’s heirloom and heritage apple experts.
The great thing about my gnarly apple is that it has hardly been touched by codling moth, even though the neighbouring pear and Rose apple trees are fair dinkum riddled. That Rose apple is for the chop and fireplace in June.
While some apples are best fresh and others cooked, not all varieties will keep well. But store we must, as there are way too many to eat fresh or stew in our neighbourhood at the moment. We only attempt to store perfect, ripe, blemish-free apples: as the saying goes, one rotten apple will spoil the lot.
When harvesting apples for storage, try to keep the stalks on because this will prevent rotting. Store the fruit in a cool, dark place with good ventilation to slow the build-up of natural ethylene (the gas that ripens the fruit).
In the past, winter apples were individually wrapped in newspaper or tissue paper, then laid out on slatted, wooden fruit racks, but corrugated cardboard boxes do the trick.
If you need to stack multiple layers, place cardboard in between each layer. The apples should not be allowed to touch each other. Check regularly and eat the ripest fruit, or any showing signs of deterioration, first.
PLANT SILVERBEET
Kale might be trendier than silverbeet but that’s no reason to turn your back on classic Fordhook Giant for leafy greens all winter. This variety has large, dark green, crinkly greens and wide white mid-ribs.
In a small garden, sow the space-saving Compact Deep Green or the spinach lookalike Perpetual.
All can be harvested leaf by leaf from the baby greens stage. Harvest the outer stalks first, twisting them off at the base, rather than cutting them (as the cut ends can rot back into the crown). Silverbeet grows readily in full sun or semi-shade. Add a sprinkle of lime to the soil prior to planting, and protect transplanted seedlings with slug bait.
After our big Easter clean up, I discovered five large clumps of silverbeet growing among the weeds, surprisingly untouched by slugs and snails. They must have self-sown because I can’t remember planting them.
My 91-year-old dad swears by silverbeet as his secret elixir. He still walks to the local Countdown to do his grocery shopping. And his two simple silverbeet recipes are to die for. One involves lashings of finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and a smothering of butter. The other has either a splash of lime or lemon or vinegar and salt and pepper. Simple is always best.