The Apple Club Newsletter

Autumn 2004

It has been a very good autumn for fruit, and we are very happy with our apple crop. So too are many of you, judging by the number of people who contacted us asking what to do with their apples, or how to make cider. If you have already made some, now might be a good time to have a glass, and relax while reading our latest newsletter.

Weather and apples

As is clear after a summer like this, apples are quite dependent on weather, and good weather at certain times can make a big difference when it comes to harvest.
If you remember back to the early summer, you may recollect that the fine weather came early, and that May and early June were good, and that once the school holidays arrived, the weather took a turn for the worse (for a while).
Now while this may not have suited those getting school holidays, it suited apples very well. There are at least two reasons for this.
Firstly, apples grow from the base of the blossom, and in fact the apple itself is just a swollen flower part. As it happens, this swelling happens in two stages. Firstly, the cells divide. So one cell becomes two, and two become four, and four become eight, and on to sixteen and so on. This happens during the first six weeks after flowering. And, this process is temperature-dependent. So the warmer it is (like this year), the more quickly the cells divide, and so there are more cells produced in this six week period.
After this period of cell division, the cells expand, getting bigger and bigger as they fill with juice during the rest of the season. But if there are more cells there to expand, the ultimate size of the apple will be larger. And this is part of the reason why people have found such good crops of nicely-sized apples in their gardens this year.
The other reason that the weather has suited apples this year, is again associated with the good weather in the early summer. Apple scab is a nasty disease affecting apples. Each year it arrives from spores on dead and decaying leaves under the tree, and infects new leaves and fruits. If it is bad, the tree can drop many leaves, and will not be able to produce a good crop of apples. However, to infect, apple scab needs wet weather in early summer, and this year the weather did not suit it. And so the trees were spared having to cope with this disease, and in turn they had good healthy leaves that could grow good apples.
So, all through the autumn, and even still, as you drive through the countryside, you may still see very good apples, even on abandoned old trees. For me it’s a reminder of the effect of weather on apples, and what a nice start we had to the summer.

Apples for Schools

Many thanks to all the schoolchildren who sent cards and notes thanking us for the apples for their schools. As many of you probably know, each year we give out free apples to the local primary schools, and this year was no exception. In total we gave away about 8000 apples, and we are very grateful to the schools for having collected these, as it is not something that we could arrange without the assistance of teachers and principals.
Sending out apples to the schools always reminds me of my own school days, as each year I would bring in a box for the class at Hallowe’en, and we would have a great party. Happy memories of simple pleasures like ducking for apples, and snap apple, not to mention ducking for coins.

The Bridgestone Guide

We are delighted to be mentioned in the 2005 Bridgestone guides again for next year, not just for our apple juice, but also for our fruits and other fruit products. Bridgestone Guides are published by John and Sally McKenna, and are an invaluable source of information on the best accommodation, food and drink in Ireland. To find out more see www.bestofbridgestone.com.

Cahir Farmers’ Market

Each Saturday, 9am to 1pm. The very best of locally produced foods. Organic foods, fresh foods, foods that have not come halfway round the World to get to you. Not to be missed.

UCD Trials

We were intrigued when contacted by researchers in University College Dublin recently, as they are working on a storage aid for apples. As part of their work, they needed access to refrigerated apple stores like we use on our farm to keep the fruit fresh. The supervisor of the research, Professor Michael J. Hennerty, and his students wanted to place some sample fruits in our stores, and to keep them there until March, when they would be tested to see how well they kept. Needless to say, we were delighted to oblige, and are very interested to find out how the trials go.
It is heartening to see some research being conducted on apples, as it is an area in which the state has invested no research money since the 1970’s, and without ongoing research and the information generated, an industry like apple growing can quickly fall behind. It definitely seems to be short-term thinking not to invest in research and development, as if other countries invest and benefit from it, they are very quick to export their products to Ireland, costing Ireland much more money than the investment in research would have in the first place.

Storage of apples

In the next week we will be completing our apple harvest for 2004, and will be putting the apples into storage. We use two methods to improve the life and quality of the apples.
Firstly, the stores are cooled, and so this reduces the respiration rate of the apples (apples breathe like you and me, but the colder it gets the slower they breathe, and so they keep well for longer). Secondly, we seal the stores to stop air getting in or out. This works on the same principle as people used years ago when storing apples in a milk churn. In a sealed store, as the apples respire, the oxygen gets used up and replaced by carbon dioxide. This lack of oxygen puts the apples to sleep, and so they store for longer and keep their flavour and firmness better.
The combined effects of the low temperature (about 4 C) and low oxygen level will hopefully mean that we will have fresh-tasting apples right through until February or beyond.
If you have a good crop of apples at home, and want to store them, the ideal piece of equipment is an old working fridge. The cool temperature will be of assistance, and the fridge may even have a good seal, in which case, if it is not opened too often, you may get a drop in oxygen levels too. Remember though that generally only late-season apples store well, so early apples should be used up first, and watch out for apples going bad and remove them. You don’t want a bad apple to spoil the barrel.

Recipe: Toffee or Caramel Apple

You will need:
6 Apples
1 Cup Sugar
Up to half a cup of double cream (optional)
1 cup Water
Lollipop sticks
1/4 Cup Crushed nuts (e.g. unsalted peanuts or pistachios)

Method:
Wash the apples and place in a fridge for a few hours (before beginning) to cool.
Mix water and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. When the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat to low-medium, and cook until the mixture is a dark amber colour. Remove from heat and stir in the cream. (Beware of spattering at this point).
Set aside to cool and thicken.
Insert lollipop sticks into the cold apples, and dip the top half of each fruit into the caramel. When the caramel is sticky, as it should now be, drizzle the crushed nuts over the apples.
Stand the apples upright to cool, perhaps in the fridge, depending on the stickiness of the caramel.
If you have a piece of aeroboard (polystyrene wall insulation board) this can make a convenient platform to insert the lollipop sticks into, as the apples will stay upright while cooling.

In the fruit garden, Autumn 2004

Raspberries
Most of the leaves will be gone from your old canes, and these can now be pruned off. Make cuts as close to the ground as possible, and tie in the canes that grew during the past summer as soon as the old ones are removed. If you are wrapping or weaving the canes, you will need to wait for another month until all the leaves have fallen off these before doing so.

Strawberries
Strawberry plants will have good runners by now, and this is a good time to take them and plant a new plot. Select runners with good roots, and plant in a location where strawberries have not been grown before. If you are keeping your old plot, remove any weeds from it before the winter.

Apples
Most of your apples should be picked by now, and if they are not, it will not be long before the birds start attacking. When the leaves fall off the trees, collect them and burn or dispose of them in a compost heap. Doing so will mean less diseases next year, as apple scab is transmitted from rotting leaves to new growth in the spring.

Chickens and Hens, By Willem Traas

In our last newsletter I wrote about old strawberries, especially old varieties. This time I will write about chickens. We call them hens most times.
Chickens were wild birds once, like pheasants are now. They lived in trees and were called jungle fowl. But in China 4000 years ago, they were already keeping them like we do now. And from China they came to Europe and America. That is where all the breeds like Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn and bantams have their great-grandparents.
Now as a hobby I have a few hens in Moorstown. Fifteen in all, and nine babies. A friend gave me a few hens and that is where it started. I got more of them from Gerry O’Looney in Cahir, some from Michael and Teddy Kerins in Cahir, some from Sam the tiler in Ardfinnan, some from Jimmy McHale from the Mountain Road in Clonmel, and some from John Hawkings in Cahir.
So my hens are a mixed breed, every colour you can think of.
And I gave some of them names. Conny is the one who had a short beak. Harry is the cock Sean O’Gorman gave me. Junior is another cock. One-eye is my oldest hen. She comes from the Kerins family and is seven years old.
I asked for advice from John Arrigan in Ballylooby, and from Carsten his neighbour. I knew a lot about them from the time I lived in Holland, when almost everyone in the village had a few hens and a pig in their back garden. But I still did foolish things.
For instance, I put an electric fence around my hen field. Now hens have feathers, and didn’t get any shock. Instead the only ones who got a shock were my dog Bobby and myself.
My hens lay brown eggs, but also some white ones. Did you know that some hens lay blue eggs? And that in some countries they keep cocks for fighting? And the owners bet on which cock will win the fight?
When my hens lay eggs, I sometimes hatch some so that I will have young chickens to lay more eggs. One-eye sits on the eggs until they hatch. But sometimes some of the chicks are young cocks, and that is no good, because they can’t lay eggs. And so I have to kill them. My friend Eamon Martin cannot understand how I can do that.
But I do not eat them like years ago in Holland, and nobody wants to take them from me. Well, if any young reader would like to have a cock, I will give you one.
And if you want a few hens, then you can buy them at the mart in Cahir. They are for sale there every Friday. Or you can tell me, and I will see what I can do.


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