It's The Season

What fruit do you eat seasonally in August / September? It's not that difficult if you have a bit of a garden where you try to grow vegetables and fruit. It's time for apples and pears! Also grapes normally, but that is a real disappointment for us this year, although we have quite a few grape plants, which are normally full of delicious juicy seedless grapes every year, we have no grapes at all this year. The wet cold spring and first part of the summer have been catastrophic for the grapes, so there are no grapes to enjoy. Unfortunately, our pear tree died after we had moved it, so the only thing left was the hope for a good apple harvest. It's not that we have that many trees now, but we do have 2 apple trees. And 2 trees can produce quite a lot of apples. Now our trees are not that old yet the Malus apple tree is only 3 years old, and the Elstar apple tree is only 5 years old. This year was extra special because we tried a completely new approach with our two apple trees.

Last Year Was Great Until The Wasps Came

We bought the Malus specifically to help our Elstar with pollination so that it would produce larger and more beautiful fruits. Last year this plan seemed to work well too, both trees were full of beautiful, large apples. But unfortunately... The wasps had also set their sights on our harvest, and before we knew it, we had nothing left. The apples were completely eaten or rotten, and we were left with a wasp plague and no apples to eat. And let me be honest about that, a disappointment that we would not soon forget. This year we decided: this has to change!

No Poison In Our Garden

We don't want to use poison. No matter how much I hate wasps, these animals also have their uses. In addition, it is a fact that if you use poison, it not only affects the wasps but also the bees, bumblebees, and birds, in short poison, affects everything... In my opinion, using poison is simply the most idiotic thing to do. We depend on insects for pollination, so it is important to ensure that the insect population does not decline any further. Unfortunately, agriculture does not think about this, but I cannot change that. We do think about it, so our approach was to not harm any insect but to ensure that the insects could not get to our growing apples. The first step was simple but effective. As soon as the blossoms were pollinated and almost finished blooming, we threw nets over the trees. This was to prevent the insects, especially those pesky wasps, from ruining our harvest. It was a bit of a hassle to get the nets over properly, and to be honest it also felt a bit strange to wrap our trees like this. It was also a big gamble because we had no idea if it would work. But in the end, the result was more than worth it.

The Weather Affected Our Apple Trees

As the summer progressed, we quickly saw that our approach worked. The trees were full of apples again, and this time almost all of the apples were still intact! There were apples with a spot here and there, but that could also have been caused by the heavy rain and the net. In any case, we had no gnawed apples. And no wasp plague. The satisfaction of seeing that our efforts have paid off is great. And although this all seemed good, the wet spring, and not so sunny and wet start of the summer did affect our apple trees. We did have a lot of apples, but they were all much smaller than we were used to and had hoped for. That was a bit of a disappointment. But despite that, I still thought it was great to see the whole table full of apples from our trees.

Small Appels, Great Taste

Although the apples were smaller, the taste was no less. They were wonderfully sweet with a little sourness in them, and enormously full of flavour. Just the kind of apple that you normally don't even think about, but just bite into right away. But yes, those small apples... they were less suitable than eating apples. You have much more core than flesh, and that just doesn't taste good. What now?

Fresh Apple Juice!

After some deliberation, we decided to go for fresh apple juice! We couldn't think of a better destination for our small but tasty apples. The juicer was brought out of the shed, and soon the first apples were in it. The juice started flowing, and let me tell you, it smelled divine. It was almost a bit magical to see how our apples transformed into pure, golden juice. No sugar, no preservatives, nothing. Just pure nature.

Taste Explosion Of Freshness

In total, we made about three liters of apple juice. Not a lot, but enough to spoil ourselves with a glass of freshly squeezed juice for a few evenings. The taste was unsurpassed. Every sip was a taste explosion of freshness, summer sweetness and that little bit of sourness in it made it complete. Of course, it also gave the feeling that you were drinking something t you had grown and made all by yourself, an extra layer of satisfaction to the whole thing. We have enjoyed our vitamin bombs every evening since Sunday.

The Party Is Over

The biggest disadvantage is that it is already gone! Before we knew it, the last drop had disappeared from the bottle and the party was over. That is a bit bittersweet, knowing that we now have to wait another year before we can repeat this. But that does not take away from the fact that we enjoyed it. The approach with the nets worked, and the idea of ​​making juice from the smaller apples was a bull's eye.

Waiting For Next Year

As far as we are concerned, this year was a great success, despite the small apples. We have learned a lot again and now know even better how we want to proceed next year. And now it is time to wait again, to get through the autumn and winter. I am already starting to dream of that first glass of homemade apple juice of the new season.