As you may know, our garden isn’t very big. I do what I can with it, but there is only limited space. As a result, I don’t have room (unlike Sister of Snail) for an orchard. However, a few years ago,we were given an apple on a very dwarf rootstock, which now lives with the chickens… which liberally apply fertiliser around it and make it very happy.
The variety is an interesting old one “Ashmead’s Kernel”, which is a good dual purpose variety with a great flavour, although visually it’s not very appealing. It takes a few years to start fruiting well and, apparently , it can be quite pernickety about pollinators, but this year in our garden it thrived. I used some of the fruit in my most recent batch of sweet hot chilli sauce, but this morning I picked the rest of the crop for bottling.
Not the prettiest apples, but maybe the most delicious
It doesn’t look much in the bucket, but once prepared, there were enough apples to make six 500ml jars. I’m so happy to finally be bottling my own apples from the garden. It’s not enough to keep us going through the year, but it sure is satisfying.
Bubbling away
The Snail of Happiness 
thecontentedcrafter
/ October 18, 2019Enjoy!! š
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anne54
/ October 19, 2019We get so entranced by perfect looking fruit and veggies that we forget about taste. It’s the supermarket influence again. Enjoy your perfectly non-perfect apples!
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The Belmont Rooster
/ October 19, 2019YUMMYLICIOUS!
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Wild Daffodil
/ October 19, 2019Very satisfying!
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tialys
/ October 19, 2019Just goes to prove that looks aren’t everything. Enjoy your future apple pies.
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nanacathy2
/ October 19, 2019So satisfying to preserve garden produce. Enjoy.
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Kim
/ October 19, 2019Wonderful! I’m not fortune enough to have a productive garden but I do have wonderful friends who donate their produce. Apple puree makes porridge just gorgeous š
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Helen
/ October 19, 2019Iām in empathy with you re picking and preserving your own apples. Even a dwarfing variety should produce more and more apples as the tree matures.
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katechiconi
/ October 20, 2019Looks aren’t everything. Just look at celeriac, or Jerusalem artichokes, or taro. Congratulations on your first good crop. I imagine it feels a bit like getting the first eggs from your own hens ā “I’m a granny!”
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The Snail of Happiness
/ October 20, 2019I did have a few last year, but they got added to apples from other sources – this year it was lovely to get some jars that were 100% home-grown.
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Ann Pole
/ October 23, 2019Well done! Our apples have ben amazing again this year.
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