Fruit trees crop late in the season, from September to October , and you can store the fruit if you do it right until around Christmas to January although eating apples and pears within the first week or two fresh from the tree is always the best, crispest fruit.

Now that we are reaching the latter stages of the harvest and leaning towards the dormant period (from November to March), it’s pruning time for apples and pears – unless they are espaliers, fans or candelabras which are pruned in summer. Don’t prune the stone fruits such as plums, almonds or cherries as these are susceptible to silver leaf disease if pruned in winter.

So,  Read More

The mixture of a very cold winter and the extreme snow along with a long warm summer has meant an abundance of fruit this Autumn and if like me you have been looking at how to store the fruit then here are a few ideas that we have gathered along the way, a fantastically easy apple & pear tart, Apple & Blackberry Jam and a stunning Smoky Blackberry Ketchup!

Apple & Pear Tart

Ingredients

• 320g ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 beaten free-range egg
• 2 thinly sliced apples
• 2 thinly sliced pears
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp apricot jam

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C  Read More