Chutney time!

[cojak]

Nice! I hope to be joining you in a couple of years, planted some fruit trees this year but will take a year or two to fruit (apple, pear, plum and cherry).

Are the apples eaters or bakers?

Oh, what to you store it in, and if jars, how do you get enough?

12 cooking apples and 1 onion produced 4 300ml jars.

[d000hg]

Are all the ingredients home-grown? If so, what varieties?

[Mordac]

Apple Chilli chutney this year. I always worry about the solid to liquid ratio but it always works out in the end.

That sometimes happens if you eat too much home-made chutney...

[Gibbon]

12 cooking apples and 1 onion produced 4 300ml jars.

Bet that goes great with wensleydale (Hawes only please) and Christmas cake.

[cojak]

Are all the ingredients home-grown? If so, what varieties?

Not the onion and I have no idea what the apples are. The small close we live in was built in an orchard (this part of Nottinghamshire was known for its apples and cider but that history has been lost) and the wonderful tree we have in the middle of the back garden is well over 100 years old and the other one not much younger.

Sadly ours are the only apple trees remaining in the close and I suspect that they will go too once we leave the property.

[WTFH]

We only have cookers and crabs so my cider press sits covered in spiders. Planted some cider varieties but they are slow growers.
A local landlord has started cider-making so likewise we may be donating apples.

You can blend cookers & eaters to make cider. Won't be as good as Dabinett, etc, but will give you a reasonable output.

[Sue B]

You're lucky - lost all ours to blight.

me too, for second year running. In previous years have got around 10 jars of autumn chutney, mixing cooking apples from our neighbours trees (i only have eating apples) with our own tomatoes, but will be lucky to get a side dish for two out of this years harvest.

[d000hg]

the wonderful tree we have in the middle of the back garden is well over 100 years old and the other one not much younger.

Could be an interesting old heritage variety then... there's an old community orchard round here that has similar.

[d000hg]

You can blend cookers & eaters to make cider. Won't be as good as Dabinett, etc, but will give you a reasonable output.

You want to throw some crabs in too for tannin (though you can use teabags) but we currently don't have any eating apples. We inherited 5 Bramleys when we moved here and have planted 3 or 4 different eaters, a crab and two single-variety ciders but they haven't taken off yet except for the crab.

[mattster]

You're lucky - lost all ours to blight.

All of ours got early blight (which is less lethal than the full blown variety), but I have managed to save them - still producing, but not as well as they would be. It has been a horrendous year for them though, it was the wet July that did it I think. My dad lost all his to blight over a couple of days, as did a neighbour. Even worse, now I seem to have a fairly bad brown rot infestation in the apple tree.