Picking Bramley apples

[tagh]

Thus far I have a good crop of Bramley cooking apples but with storms coming I was wondering if I should not pick them now, probably a tiny bit early. They do not taste very tart but the twist test shows the are still hanging on the tree quite well. Any thoughts, please?

[Bayleaf]

We seem to have lost all of ours to a late frost in Spring. Either that or the deer have been quietly munching on them!

They will continue to ripen if you pick them, or do you have some fleece that could be draped around under the tree to soften their fall caused by the imminent storm?

I remember picking some on previous years, and having to wait until they actually smelt like bramleys before attempting to cook with them! Then they were lush!

[exile]

I would leave them on the tree unless you are expecting hail. If they are not ripe, they will not keep in storage. Even if you do get hail unless it is very severe the leaves and branches should protect most of the fruit - unless you are growing a cordon or trained tree where there are not the foliage or branches.

Bramleys are notorious for biannual cropping but having had a good crop last year, we are on for another this. In the last week we have had a substantial drop which given everything is late this year I assume is the "July drop" when trees shed fruit they cannot support. Some have the obvious worm holes or are rotting, but some seemed to be in good nick were of a reasonable size, so we have pureed and frozen these. The pips were small and still white, showing this is underdeveloped fruit which as said will noy keep as whole apples.

[tagh]

Thank you folks for the kind replies; I mostly make apple sauce with them as I have a weakness for apple purée. Maybe I will try and freeze some slices as well this year.

[Hotrodder]

Exile's post reminds me of a question I have been meaning to ask for a while now.
For those who have to buy their fruit & veg from supermarkets, I have been wondering how you are finding the quality over the last year or so. More often than not here in TBOB produce that looks very good turns out to be rotten inside when we come to use it. As a result we buy very little fruit these days. Spuds and onions have been particularly bad. Is this down to poor storage, or in the case of fruit, picking too early? Much of the fruit we buy is pretty tasteless. Even the canned stuff is better in that respect. I wouldn't complain so loudly if produce was actually cheap but its not these days.

[Lori]

I've had lots of problems with onions. I check them prior to buying yet within a few short days, they are rotten. I presume they weren't that fresh when I bought them.

I've also noticed that apples, in most cases, are much smaller than normal and they don't appear very fresh. Strawberries this year were very good. Lettuce seems to be a mixed bag. Heads seem smaller than normal and filled with bugs.

I haven't had more problems with potatoes than I would normally have. Melons seemed smaller than normal in the beginning of the season, but they are bigger now. Taste with them is always hit or miss.

Prices of everything is higher than I recall last year.

Baby spinach and green beans can be very hard to find. If you do find green beans, they are often looking very bad.

[elsie]

I've an unknown French variety of apple tree which must be at least 60 years old. The apples are similar to a Bramley, slightly bitter and turn fluffy very quickly when cooked. Some have just started dropping (those usually have inhabitants!) but I've picked a bucketful, turned them to a purée (flavoured with a small amount of cinnamon and cloves but no sugar) and now have seven half-filled 1 litre tubs in the freezer. I usually have some with muesli on winter mornings.

[MAD87]

We're lucky enough to have an épicerie 10 metres away, but they tend to buy their fruit under-ripe. Last Sunday I bought white peaches, apricots (which I never buy) and a melon, all of which were ready to eat (à point) and delicious, from the little Sunday market (10 metres the other way).
My Kiné assures me that the fruit/veg she buys from the Tuesday market is also A1.

[Polly]

We have several apple trees in our garden in Berkshire, one a lovely Bramley about 70 years old and a couple of eating apples, which aren’t pleasant to eat.

We’re lucky this year as the Bramley has fruited heavily again, should have been a lean year; the eaters are also laden with fruit that will mostly go to the tip - far too many for our fortnightly garden bin collection.

I also enjoy apple purée like tagh and Elsie and freeze huge amounts for pots for breakfast, plus slices to make crumbles. We also enjoy baked apples, cored, dried fruit stuffed in the centres and filled with golden syrup - oh, I can almost smell them baking and taste the juices and golden syrup!

We arrived home from a week in France to find the top lawn half-covered in apples and after yesterday’s wind and last night’s heavy rain it’s even worse now. The forecast shows a dry weather later this afternoon, so collecting will begin again.

[Lori]

I also enjoy apple purée like tagh and Elsie and freeze huge amounts for pots for breakfast, plus slices to make crumbles. We also enjoy baked apples, cored, dried fruit stuffed in the centres and filled with golden syrup - oh, I can almost smell them baking and taste the juices and golden syrup!

I love this too ! I do the same thing with Winter squash. Sometimes I use molasses, sometimes I'll use honey in place of syrup over the dried fruits.