As all children do I learnt about apples from a young age, A is for Apple is the first book we are shown as we begin our reading journey. Followed swiftly it seemed by the terror of watching Walt Disney and Sleeping Beauty, does she choose the bright red apple from the wicked witch? Later, as I have learnt about food in art I’ve admired Van Gough and Cezzane and most notably Rene Magritte with his bowler hat and huge green apple in The Thomas Crown Affair. Shakespeare penned the line ‘apple of my eye’. The apple is everywhere and not just in an electronic way.

My first love of the apple came about, like most of my first loves from my Nan’s garden. Nan had three apple tree’s, one that was in the middle of the veg patch that we were not allowed to go to, lest we trample the veg. I used to watch that tree shed its apples onto the dug over winter earth at the start of winter and look forlornly as the sad apples shrivelled up and decayed. I suspect Nan had too many apples by this point. The other two we could climb up and reach the fruit, trying to dodge the sleepy but crazy wasps that were in search of sugar. It must have been one of the first jobs that Grandad did when they moved into a brand new council house having been evacuated from Liverpool during the II World War. He planted three apple trees and a plum tree as they were very mature trees by the time I came to recognise them. What foresight, although with rationing still hot on their heels it may well have given them more insight about food security. They also had chickens and a very big veg patch with two greenhouses.

So when I was offered my allotment five years ago (having given up my previous allotment to go to London) I was ecstatic that there was an area with mature trees and fruit bushes. It was the middle of winter so not a leaf to be found so I wasn’t exactly sure what I had, but felt sure that I had two apples at least. I actually had a very good pear tree, two apples, a hazelnut tree, red currants, gooseberries, blue berries, blackcurrants and a josta berry. All mature. I’ve since added strawberries, raspberries, thornless blackberries and loganberries. Good old fashioned allotmenting books understood that it was the value, financially, of the fruit grown that then paid the allotments way for the rest of the year. And I was very happy to take over a founder members allotment who had understood this and put the backbone into an excellent plot.

I digress. (as always!) Since then I’ve learnt to prune, although I haven’t quite mastered the art of thinning the fruit out. I’m always a bit terrified of that bit. Mainly because if you get high winds in the spring, as you often do, there will be a natural thinning out. If you’ve ever noticed scrawny looking pears that are hard as nails after high winds in the market place, don’t buy them, they’ll never ripen, it’s just the farmers trying to make the best of the situation.

There weren’t any high winds this year so I have ended up with many small fruit. Which actually I don’t mind. One of the reasons I don’t enjoy commercial apples is the size, the chewing can go on for too long. Also, they don’t have the same spring in the taste as a freshly picked apple and once you taste the difference it’s difficult to go back. I rarely eat fruit out of season these days, unless its been prepared in season and frozen (or jammed!).

So today, being a rainy day, I prepped some of my apples, stuffed them full of butter, sugar, sultanas, pecan and cinnamon.

Then baked them, cooled them and popped them in the freezer for mid winter treats.

And then as I’ve now mastered the art of when to pick the pears, pears are picked when they are unripe, they only ripen off the tree. Pick them too early they never ripen, pick them too late and they rot from the inside out. I’ve been picking a couple a week for six weeks to test them, to see if they will ripen, and I’ve finally mastered what to look for, which is pretty much indescribable, its just a feeling of plumpness in the fruit and a glow on the skin. I’ve basically eaten a tree full. Which has been marvellous and I’ve not told anyone because they are so beautiful, a honeyed dripping perfectly juicy and ripe pear is a thing of beauty, I eat three in a sitting and I’m just not willing to share!!!

But I had some of the buttery mix left so I thought I would bake some off for my future self.

Another job I finally got done today was to pod the dried up runner and french beans. I use beans a lot in my winter cooking and it gives me great pleasure to be able to grow my own protein. If I could keep a pig I would, but as it is I’ll settle for the beans that are too old to enjoy, or that I’ve simply grown tired off because something else has sprouted up that has taken my fancy.

Drying until ready to be placed into jars.