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| Worcestor Pearmain - a taste to savour every September |
At
this time of year, despite the often restless swirling winds outside,
everything seems to take on a strange kind of stillness. It's a
stillness that's difficult to articulate, yet I think all who work
with the seasons know it. A strange kind of nostalgia... the sweet
smell of decay on the breeze reminds us that things are completing
their annual cycles. Yet so gentle is this sense of completion, I
think it serves to remind us also that in nature there is no such
thing as death - only a graceful culmination of cycles, a harvesting
if you like, of all that once grew and flourished. A great sense of
peace and abundance can be felt, as with unconditional generosity,
nature offers us the fruits of another year's effort.
We,
alongside nature have worked hard and enjoyed the exhilarating energy
of spring and summer, now it is time to enjoy the fruits of our
labour. An inner harvest comes with the
outer harvest. It is this feeling of harvest that brings us to
stillness. It is time to rest.
How
have you all done during the 2017 growing season? Nature certainly
seems to have been expressing to us more than ever this year of her
distress. Distorted and very unpredictable weather patterns are even
more noticed by those of us who work closely with the land. The
drought during the spring and early summer is still evident in local
streams and rivers that are still only trickling much of the time
despite the huge quantities of rain lately. The ground just keeps
soaking it up, the Earth was clearly very thirsty.
All
the sunshine and heat we had early on did seem to get things ahead
though, and just gave the edge needed to lengthen the season for
those crops that lie in the margins of what's viable to grow in our
climate.
For
those places that avoided the late hard spring frosts, a bumper crop
of tree fruit has been enjoyed by many. Here on our farm, frost
pockets became very evident - fruit trees lying in valley bottoms
gave no fruit at all this year compared with almost branch breaking
volumes on those higher up the hills.
Apples
did brilliantly - our one hundred year old Worcester Pearmain
faithfully delivering more basket-fulls of her delicious, sweet early
apples.
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| An old Devonshire Damson tree delivers again... |
Plums
and Damsons also did well for many. As you can see we had such a glut
of damsons, we just didn't know what to do with them all - so I'm
trying something new. Inspired by my friend Sagara's brined sloes, I thought I'd give brined damsons a try. It's still early days but
they already have a delicious juicy plummy olive kind of a vibe going
on!
(Check out Sagara's amazing facebook page for more details on brining fruits and beautiful photos of his autumn harvest https://www.facebook.com/Eastdevonforestgarden )
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| Smaller than from the shops, yet much sweeter! |
I
was also very excited to get my first couple of pears from our old
wild pear tree that I top grafted many years ago (before the days
when grafting troubled me so!) - Doyenne de
Comice, the Queen of pears, ripening really well against the south
wall.
Grapes
were also a success this year. My Brandt vine giving her best ever
crop to date. The vine climbs up a stair case to find the warm haven
of a south facing wall. Grapes growing against the stone ripening a
good bit earlier than those left dangling in the open air.
Perhaps
most excitingly of all fruit-wise though was my first proper crop of
hardy kiwis - also known as Siberian kiwi, Tara vine or smooth kiwi -
or in latin, Actinidia arguta. My self-fertile cultivar 'Issai'
giving out generous lots of its tiny sweet delicious fruits. Once
they soften, the flavor is almost identical to a really ripe fuzzy
kiwi - and the best ones are even more aromatic and flavorsome than
that. A real winner, and providing the foliage doesn't get hit by
late frosts it seems quite at home in our climate. I can see many
more people growing this crop in years to come. Perhaps it could even
become commercial?
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| Brandt Grapes - very tasty once fully ripe! |
So
write in! symbiosisnursery@gmail.com - I look forward to hearing from
you.
Keep
enjoying the harvest :)
Charlie
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| Yes, I'm very chuffed to be growing kiwis!!! |
