The Apple Harvest

It has been a disappointing year for apples, well at least here in La Pasera. We have five apple trees, all of which were already here when the house was built. The two cider apple trees which were very neglected produced very little as they were reduced in size by two thirds about three years ago and they are still re-growing. The three other trees are a Russet and two others we are really not sure about. One of the trees was grafted two years ago with other Russet stock from Luis' sister.

Most of the apple trees are old, diseased and ready to be replaced or grafted. As a consequence, the harvests tend to be unpredictable and dependant on a variety of things such as the weather and infestation. Spraying is not an option for us so we make best use of what we manage to harvest. One day last week we harvested what apples we had before further damage was done by the prevailing strong winds.

This year has been exceptionally dry and together with the strong winds causing early windfall, the harvest has not been that good. Luckily we have friends locally who often offer us additional apples. In addition, Luis' sister will no doubt send some for us the next time we visit.

The apples are stored in a cool dark place and sifted through regularly to ensure that any rotting fruit does not contaminate other fruit. We will use some for eating, a few for baking in desserts and the remainder either in chutney, drying or juicing.

Elsewhere in the garden, the spell of rain and intermittent warm sunshine has brought the insect population back out in a last flurry of activity before the cooler weather sets in for winter and the cheerful Robins have returned and regularly come to say hello.

Fresh home-made juice and juicing

Freshly picked for juicing

Anyone who grows fruit and vegetables will know that at times there is a glut and the more you harvest the more the plants seem to produce. This situation at times is compounded when family, friends or neighbours arrive bearing fresh produce.

Here at La Pasera, we decided to purchase a juicer so that we could not only use up more of our home produce but also benefit from drinking home juices that incorporate in the main, freshly picked fruits, herbs and vegetables.

From a health viewpoint, when you decide to start juicing, you will benefit from all their micro-nutrients,  especially the vitamins that easily oxidise and get destroyed or which are radically depleted in cooking. Natural sugars start decreasing as soon as fruit and veg are picked or with long term storage, so using them in this way, the natural sweetness is much more prominent.

One of the disadvantages of juicing is the loss of fibre due to the removal of all the solids but this is a small price to pay when you consider not only the sweetness but also the taste you get when juicing home grown produce you collected from the plot a few minutes earlier.

The juice combinations you can make depend not only on the fruits and vegetables available but also on what you add to them in terms of spices and herbs. There is no reason why you cannot add spices and exotic or seasonally purchased fruits in your choice of juices.

 Only your imagination and personal taste is the limit to the range of juices you can make.

One of my favourite combinations include: beetroot and apple; celery, apple, lime and fennel; pineapple, celery and fennel with a touch of mint, and what about orange, ginger and apple. My latest one was windfall russet apples and Asturian wild peach, simply decadent and I will be making more tomorrow.

Summer harvests

Summer is well and truly making its mark on La Pasera. It is generally too hot to walk during the day so we have started going down to the local beach early in the morning before the heat of the day. On our return we harvest what needs to be harvested and put crops that need to dry out on the terrace to dry further.

The earth is very dry, cracks are appearing in the clay soil and the grass is growing slowly and patchy in places. We have had spells of rain but much less than usual and it is beginning to show. Despite the dry weather, most of our vegetable and soft fruit crops are growing well and in some cases, producing bumper crops. I think the warm damp spring gave the crops a great start.

It is a busy time of the year with many of the crops requiring harvesting and processing. The onions were harvested a few weeks ago and have been drying in the store room before being plaited and hung in the loft. With a bit of luck and regular aeration, they will last us until next year. The potatoes are now dry and stored in crates covered with cotton cloth to exclude the light.

We have so many cucumbers and marrows we have been distributing them amongst neighbours and friends, eating as many as possible and processing the rest into Marrow soup or juicing the cucumber for refreshing drinks.

The beetroot are cropping well and as one sowing is used up, another later sowing is beginning to produce young sweet beets that we intend to bottle or eat. Other root crops are growing well and this year we have our first harvest of carrots - only possible since we added sandy top soil. Also, we have swede, celeriac, turnip and parsnips which will be harvested later in the year.

We have begun to harvest our first aubergines, peppers and chilli peppers, so far we are eating what we pick but they will soon outgrow our immediate needs and we will have to think about how we will store them... Maybe bottle the peppers and use some to make pickles and chutneys.

This morning we picked a generous basket of tomatoes. Overall they have been disappointing but we expected they would be as our climate is unsuitable for prolific fruiting. We are too close to the sea and salty sea mists soon destroy the young flowers before setting fruit even though we protect them in a plastic tunnel.

The beans have grown very well indeed but as they come around the same time as so many other crops we tend not to eat many fresh. We leave them on the plant until the pods dry and then harvest and dry further until thy are ready to shell. This usually gives us around 6 kilos of dried beans for use later in the year.

The fennel has been splendid this year and we have eaten many in salads, stir-fries and juiced. If you cut the fennel off and leave the roots in the ground, it will re-sprout and give you a few more smaller fennel for later on in the season. Elsewhere the brassicas, leeks and salad leaves are continuing to grow well despite the dry weather, watered regularly using water stored in butts from around the garden.

3 young fennel re-sprouting from one root

Well that's all from La Pasera for now, I must get out and harvest the blackberries as one of our varieties is full of fruit and if we don't pick them, the birds or mice probably will.