Autumn is in the Air - The Apple Harvest

Behold the apples’ rounded worlds:
juice-green of July rain,
the black polestar of flowers, the rind
mapped with its crimson stain.

The russet, crab and cottage red
burn to the sun’s hot brass,
then drop like sweat from every branch
and bubble in the grass.

They lie as wanton as they fall,
and where they fall and break,
the stallion clamps his crunching jaws,
the starling stabs his beak.

In each plump gourd the cidery bite
of boys’ teeth tears the skin;
the waltzing wasp consumes his share,
the bent worm enters in.

I, with as easy hunger, take
entire my season’s dole;
welcome the ripe, the sweet, the sour,
the hollow and the whole.

Laurie Lee

 I can smell a change in the air - the garden is starting to wind down - soon digging will begin on vacant spaces where the final crops have been harvested, and all that will be left are the cabbages and  leafy veg.  But of course there is always the apple harvest to come.

My apple crop is greatly diminished this year, and I could see blackbirds hopping through the branches pecking at them, James Grieve are a highly scented variety, and seem to attract birds and wasps alike, in their droves - some years you can hardly see the tree for starlings gorging themselves.  So yesterday I picked all that I could reach - maybe a bucketful - as we are on holiday next week - and I fear there would be no apples left for us on our return.  They are not a keeping variety but will be alright for a couple of weeks so I shall be making a few pies and crumbles with them as well as a bit of juicing.

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A Deeply Appley Apple Crumble
A sublime crumble is probably one where the fruit lies somewhere between thick juice and soft nuggets of flesh.  For me, the filling should be a mixture of barely recognisable chunks on the verge of collapse and a sort of sweet slush the texture of melting snow.
Nigel Slater

recipe here

A favourite apple is the Russet which has a lovely nutty flavour and I am hoping to plant one this year so that when the James Grieve is over I will  continue cropping from this tree.

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My Golden Delicious tree doesn't have a single apple on it this year - last year it was heaving.
   I had so many that I was giving carrier bags full away and feeding them to the sheep - if only I had had an apple press.  Alas, this year is a different story.  Hopefully the tree will feel rested and give me a bountiful harvest next year.

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Or I could have made them into apple crisps if I had had the time.

Carl Larsson - Apple Harvest

I still have two other trees which are Braeburn type apples but they are still small and won't be ready before October - and of course there is the Bramley - most of the apples this year seem to be a bit pitted and scabby - so I am not expecting a good harvest from it.  In fact, it has been rubbish ever since I planted it - so earlier this year I bought a replacement - and the old tree will be chopped down when the new one has established itself.   My Mum used to grate Bramleys with sugar  for us when we were kids, a treat that I always associate with autumn. 

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And I also love cheese and apple sandwiches - a slab of strong Cheddar and thinly cut crisp, tart apples - in between slices of fresh crusty bread - simple, but delicious.

Apple Orchard, Kent - John Minton

 let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could." 
                         --Louise Erdrich "The Painted Drum"