Far Lands

With the inexorable approach of Winter we took a week off and headed for the sun. Like last year we went to Majorca which gives great sea swimming and surprisingly good walking (mountains of 1000m plus). We swam and we walked but, true to type, we also foraged and checked out their chickens. Foraging spoils included walnuts (left two trays), dates (top right), a pomegranate (no pic), almonds (middle right), medlars (middle, bottom), figs (right, bottom) and satsumas (you can probably work it out).  The chickens roosted in an orange tree!

With the leaves changing colour and starting to fall, it may be a good time to think about Winter jobs. Big jobs. Long, tiring jobs that can warm you up and can be done in rain and snow. For example, digging out the compost heaps, manuring the land, building wood stacks and one-off construction / digging jobs. For me this year the one-off job is to construct 3 new cordon lines for apple trees. The design and location was discussed at some length during the Spring and finally received wifely approval. The new cordons are 10.6 m long and should provide enough space for 50 varieties of apple but also some pear and plum. My aim is 100 varieties so I may need some family trees. Like any big job, it always feel good to start.

At the weekend I picked another apple from our new cordon line of fruit trees. It was a good size - 230g when I weighed it - and I was quite proud of it. The first apple from that tree. A James Grieve , said my labelling system. I picked it for Saturday lunch, to be shared and discussed with my wife. To be lauded, both the apple and me. It did not look like a  James Grieve . I checked a second book. Its eye was meant to be closed or part closed. This apple's eye was open, wide open. I was unsure, and when I cut through the middle with a knife, even more so. Hard, culinary apple hard. I checked the pictures in the two books again. Nothing had changed. I bit off a piece and chewed. Slowly, sadly. Disappointedly. It was a culinary apple; a cooking apple. Possibly a Bramley ; it looked like one. I hung my head. And I thought about the chain of actions from harvesting the scion to transplanting the grafted sapling. Where had the mistake been made? By the person who had gi