GROWING FRUIT
From apples and pears to nuts and berries
On the oldest map we have of the farm, drawn in about 1840, the orchard and its separate trees are clearly marked. For the farmer and his family, this small corner of the land would have punched well above its weight when it came to food and income generation. A clever mix of cooking and cider apples, pears, plums and bullaces (wild plums) meant that the farm had plenty of produce for its own larder but, crucially, enough surplus fruit to sell and make a bit of extra money. Amazingly, nearly two hundred years later, some of the original trees still stand – including a now gigantic pear tree that produces equally enormous Conference pears. We’ve added more fruit trees to the mix – cherries, eating apples and more plums; maybe in another hundred years, another family will think of us as they tuck into a warm, steaming fruit pie.
CREATING AN ORCHARD
Fruit trees are like guests at a wedding – you’ve got to know who will happily sit next to whom. If you’re creating an orchard from scratch, pick the brains of your local supplier – they’ll be able to recommend trees that will fit your location, as well as planting densities, compatible varieties and when to harvest.
To get the most from an orchard, plan to have as much year-round fruit as possible – some apple varieties, for example, are still good in December. Plant with pollination in mind. While some fruit trees can self-fertilise, plenty can’t, so you’ll need to plant a compatible variety close by. If space is tight, fruit trees can be trained against walls as espalier or fans, formed into archways using cordon varieties, turned into low hedges using step-over forms or bought as dwarf or half-standard varieties for pots.
Plan to have as much year-round fruit as possible
KEEPING BEASTIES AT BAY WITH CAGES AND NETTING
If you grow delicious fruit and vegetables, chances are they’ll be tempting for every other creature that shares your garden. Gardening shouldn’t be a battle – you’ll only lose anyway – and so part of successful smallholding is striking a deal with nature that lets go of any desire to completely dominate the process.
Insecticides do more harm than good and so one of the easiest and non-damaging ways to protect your crops is netting. There is a vast range available – with different mesh sizes – each fulfilling a particular task. From gauze-like insect mesh to bird or butterfly netting, you need to make sure that you not only keep out certain creatures but let in the beneficial ones. Soft fruit netting, for example, needs to be big enough to allow pollinating insects access or you’ll have no crop. If you’re not sure what netting you need, Harrod Horticultural has a handy Youtube video (youtu.be/xvqqkemgn_w).
HERALDING HERITAGE VARIETIES
There are at least two thousand varieties of apple grown in this country, and yet we eat just a handful. The same applies to many other British fruits – from plums to pears, gooseberries to greengages. This rich range exists because, as a country, we have been tinkering with fruit cultivation for centuries. The Victorians were particularly good at it – nurserymen and amateurs alike spent many a happy hour making hybrids, crossing domestic and wild varieties, and creating completely new ones. Many of these aren’t commercially available – how many of us have tried a Norfolk Beefing apple or a Dittisham Ploughman plum? – and yet, with a bit of space, we can grow our own scrumptious slice of history.
Get inspired by Christopher Stocks’s excellent book Forgotten Fruits and then head to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, which has a fantastic Fruit Finder tool featuring thousands of varieties local to you and where you can buy trees or grafts (ptes.org/campaigns/traditional-orchard-project/fruitfinder).
PRESSING AND STORING
Making your own apple juice is a hoot. It’s a surprisingly physical activity – one that kids can help with – and the results can be enjoyed instantly. There’s a fine art to producing really good juice – it’s all in the selection of the apples – but experimenting with different varieties to get that perfect balance of sweetness and crisp acidity is all part of the fun. You can use windfalls and blemished apples – just not mouldy ones – which need to be washed, chopped, crushed, pressed and bottled.
An apple press is an absolute must – Vigo Presses (vigopresses.co.uk) has a good selection as well as guides on how to make juice, cider, cordials and jellies, and how to bottle and safely store juice if it doesn’t get guzzled on the day.
For the perfect apple juice, experiment with different varieties to get a balance of sweetness and crisp acidity
PRUNING TO PERFECTION
An old gardener for a local stately home once told me that you should be able to sit in the middle of a mature apple tree and open a broadsheet newspaper without it touching any branches. His advice was sound – the ‘goblet’ shape he achieved would have opened up the crown of the tree and let in plenty of light and air movement around the fruit.
In general, pruning fruit trees happens at two times of the year, depending on what you’re pruning and why. Anything with pips – apples, pears, quinces – needs pruning in winter. This encourages vigorous growth and helps to create structure. Anything with a stone – plums, cherries, peaches – gets pruned in summer. This triggers the tree to produce a better fruit crop and stops it growing too big. The Woodland Trust has sound advice on how to prune both types – search ‘when to prune fruit trees’ on woodlandtrust.org.uk.