food

A Social and Discussion Evening; October Meeting

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The September meeting was chaired by our Treasurer, Rob, who greeted everyone and started the conversations by saying that his gardening year had resulted in good and bad results – rust on his garlic, mildew on his onions but a bumper apple crop!

Apple diseases were discussed and some people had experienced scab on their apple trees, for which there is no cure. The leaves need to be removed and disposed of by burning or binning them but definitely not putting them in the compost as it is a fungal disease. Jo pointed out that if, for instance, a tree is transplanted, all the leaves can be removed and it will not affect the tree greatly as the roots will continue to flourish.

We discussed the pruning of apple trees and, as Rob said, if the tree is doing well and producing decent fruit, there is no need to get too excited about pruning – if it ain’t broke,don’t fix it – and don’t prune for the sake of it! Happy news in a way, as some people admitted to being nervous about doing it. If we do prune, there is a need to keep open the middle of the tree (try throwing a hat through it) and taking off water shoots which will drain energy from the tree. Rob pointed out that pruning really needs to be learnt in a practical way, i.e. when we’re in front of an actual tree with a person who has the know-how. Learning on a youngish (8 – 15 years old) tree would work best.

Pressing apples is a way to use excess; juice can be bottled and the bottles then pasteurised, or it can be heated in a large pan and then bottled. This way, it will last for months. There are apple pressing days in the grounds of Lampeter University on 27th September, at Watson & Pratts Lampeter on 28th September, or at Aberglasney Gardens on 5th October. Take your apples and containers for the juice.

We also discussed pear trees; it’s best to pick the pears before they are fully ripe, then ripen them indoors so that they don’t go mushy. The difficulty of netting cherry trees was discussed, but no-one had a real answer on that one.

Sandy told us that she successfully picks redcurrants before they are ripe and then ripens them indoors, and it seems to work. Blueberries seem to flourish in the ground mostly and are happy even in flooded areas as they like their feet being wet, as do cranberries. Tracey wanted to know if anyone has picked Leycesteria (Himalayan Honeysuckle) berries and it seems it might not be worth it, though they do make good jam.

We talked about blossom end rot in courgettes, tomatoes, peppers etc; the cause may be erratic watering. We had general chats about preserving heat in a greenhouse or polytunnel, Rob advises that, although a through-draught is necessary during the day, closing everything up at night (especially when you have in there a water container which will have warmed up during the day) is usually best.

We discussed the use of the formula called Dipel for the eradication of caterpillars on brassicas. Dipel is a natural bacterium which affects the digestive system of the caterpillars and causes them to die. It cannot be purchased in the garden centre or a shop but it is available online. It is a question as to whether the dead caterpillars might be eaten by birds and kill them.

Radish pods (produced when the radish have gone to seed) are delicious and apparently the “Rat’s tail” variety sold by a company called Real Seeds are the very best if you want to eat the pods. In a similar vein, there has apparently been a trial of parsley-style leaves grown on pea shoots which produce good yields.

General information on seeds – Woolmans have now bought up Johnsons Seeds and they also supply seeds to Sarah Raven. Since the prospect of a discount for seeds from Woolmans is possible, this might be worth organising.

Carol asked about obtaining some Yellow Rattle seeds; these can probably be obtained locally from Fiona and Julian Wormald in July or August when they cut their hay.

Tracey pointed out that the posters which had been organised to advertise the club, and hopefully entice more members, need to be distributed and any help with that would be appreciated.

We were all then quite keen to have some of the delicious food on display, which had been brought to share by those present at the meeting.

October Meeting

‘Fritillaries on Four Continents’ with Robert Wallis will be the talk at our next meeting on October 15th. Bob and Rannveig Wallis are well known for their amazing collection of bulbs and their garden, Llwyn Ifan, in Carmarthenshire..  They are seasoned travellers and plant hunters and successful exhibitors for the Alpine Society Shows.

Welsh Apples by Carwyn Graves

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Carwyn has been involved with the history and growing of apples for many years now, and has written books on the subject, firstly “Afalau Cymru”, also published in English as
“Apples of Wales”. This was in parallel with a book which records the first National collection of Welsh apple varieties, and both books were best sellers within the first 3 months. He then published a book on Welsh food stories and the more recent story of the Welsh landscape. This begins with the fortunes of orchards here and the fact that so muchof the environment has been lost to industrialisation.

We started with a quiz about the names of varieties of apple that have been and, to some extent, are still grown in Wales. Not sure how well we did here with our answers, but some of the names made the audience laugh and we found that some of the unlikely sounding ones actually were apples!

There are apparently over 7000 known varieties of apple in the world, but the currently commercially available apples were all bred originally from the Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Cox, and unfortunately most on the supermarket shelves were picked around 6 months ago. The most prolific apple producers in the world are USA, Poland and China. Historically and even recently, Wales has not been very closely associated with apple production – Lynne Yates mentioned in her cookbook (2010) that “Wales has never produced much fruit as the soil conditions are not suitable”.

However, in the Mabinogion (combining Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance, written 12th-13th century), Queen Rhiannon at her wedding feast orders her husband’s men to “wait outside in the orchard”. There are many Welsh names which can be linked with the word apple, for instance Afallon (or Avalon) meaning place of fruit/apples. The Bishop of St Davids in 1326 had gardens and orchards and many ordinary people had fruit trees and bushes. There is a record of 2 women in 1390 in St Asaph who had 2 orchards.

After 1536, following the Act of Union then the dissolution of monasteries, it seems the rich became richer and nobles of the land were able to invest in fruit production; there is a record from 1618 documenting the growth of lemons, oranges, figs, nectarines etc which had not been grown in Britain previously. Apple trees by this time were being distinguished between sweet and sour apples and it is recorded that a quantity of sweet apple trees in fruit were worth 15 pigs!

In the 1700s small plots were often available to cottagers for growing veg, flowers, herbs and 5 or 6 apple trees, and gardens were beginning to be seen as places of pleasure and gentle recreation. A land use survey around this time recorded that, of 850 acres in Brecknockshire, 350 acres were used for apples. Around this time, apples were embedded within Welsh culture via place names and many allusions were being made to fruit in folk songs and poetry.

The First and Second World Wars obviously had a great effect on fruit production and many trees were grubbed out to provide land for the most necessary vegetables – if you had a couple of apple trees in your garden they must have been highly prized.

It is not true that apple trees will not survive in very wet areas, neither is it true that the trees must be correctly and frequently pruned. The Bishop’s Palace near Carmarthen has a very old orchard, still flourishing and producing, and yet when the River Towy floods, the waters can often be seen half way up the confines of the walled garden.

To conclude the talk, a discussion was held around the loss of skills within horticulture and fruit growing. The Welsh government is taking small steps to address this and there are some subsidies for orchards plus encouragement of the use of apples for their nutritional value, but some joined up thinking is required around production and subsidies and how to use the food being produced. The government does need to facilitate and not lead because there are people outside of government who have the knowledge required.

Several questions were put to Carwyn about pruning and he encouraged not to overprune and certainly not to prune in the first year. Also, when did the idea of pruning begin? – apparently the Romans knew about it..

We really enjoyed the talk; Dawn thanked Carwyn and a raffle was held for one of Carwyn’s books.