Tuesday 20 November 2012

Dressing apples..?

(no, not like peg dolls...) More attention is to be expected at this time of year - birds (deep pecking), rot (brown is good, black is not), overly deep bruising, slug holes, wireworms (can affect long standing windfalls), grubs (though more common in early windfalls), mud, sliminess (harmless but unappealing), deep cracks... Windfall fruit will more likely need washing too.
It has to be said, I'm a reluctant washer - for me this entails filling a bucket with water, adding a few kilos of apples and tipping from one bucket to another a few times, or more, depending - a pot brush then for removing any stubborn mud - but in fact all you're doing is diluting any 'contamination'. Once you start with the knife though it becomes a 'labour of love' and as you go on with fruit after fruit you can find yourself trimming quite unnecessarily...
One of these years I swear I'm going to press all the timmings - just out of interest you understand - pound to a penny, the resulting cider would be no different... if not better..?

No comments: