Opinion : All is safely gathered in

Last weekend was very busy for me.

After waking up at 6.00am on Saturday morning there was just time for a hearty breakfast before venturing out into the grounds of my ancestral home to gather in the apple harvest.

At 9.00am I was in the orchard picking the first apple, at 4.00pm your humble servant was still there picking apples as fast as my hands would go.

With the aid of my trusty ladder yours truly was soon at the top of each tree gathering as many fruits as possible.

In fact there were so many bags of apples picked the only way to get them back to the house was to drive my trusty car into the orchard and transport them by motor vehicle.

It seems my last blog on Friday caused quite a lot of interest indeed several readers contacted me wanting to know how they should store their apples so they keep for as long as possible.

Apples store best in a cool, frost free, place out of direct sunlight. Of course only the most perfect apples will store well indeed the slightest imperfection or blemish, such an an insect bite and the apple will rot and go bad in no time at all.

Personally I prefer to store the fruit on sheets of newspaper in wooden boxes making sure there is an air gap between each fruit.

This year my apple crop is resting in one of the many spare bedrooms in the south wing of my residence however any frost free place will do. In times before we would store apples in the south pavilion however these days its too far for me walk when I am feeling hungry.

But whatever you do don’t store fruit in a room that is heated, it’s the quickest way to make them go bad.

Remember to make regular, preferably weekly, checks on your apples just in case and odd one does show signs of rot in which case remove it immediately.

Well, my apple crop is safely gathered in for another year. I for one won’t be going hungry this year.

Naturally I left a few apples at the top of some of the trees for the birds so they won’t be going hungry either.

What do you think?

*My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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