Abundance is a new group of projects aimed at tracking down surplus food being grown across Britain and finding ways to harvest and distribute it. One of the key issues behind sustainable food production is not wasting what is already being grown, and as well as addressing this problem Abundance helps to teach city inhabitants about the kinds of locally produced food they can often find on their doorsteps. Sarah Irving talks to Debbie Clarke of Abundance Manchester.

Abundance Manchester was set up in 2008 by a young woman called Leonie who had heard about the Sheffield Abundance project and, says Debbie Clarke, “just thought it made loads of sense. It addresses lots of issues – primarily food waste but also food miles, food access, health, and the underestimated capacity for urban food production. It also appealed to her love of climbing trees!”

The Sheffield Abundance project had been established in 2007 to harvest surplus fruit and distribute it around central Sheffield and Meadowhall or to can and bottle it, educating people about issues like food sustainability and in traditional skills for preserving fresh produce. In 2009, the project also published a guide to community harvesting for groups wanting to find ways of dealing with surplus food in their own communities.

Since 2008, Manchester Abundance has grown to a core group of six people although, says Clarke “there’s no formal committee and anyone is welcome to get involved.” They are joined by around twenty people who come to picking sessions and a further hundred or so on the mailing list. As well as actually picking fruit and vegetables, members of the group also take stalls to local food events, offering free produce or freshly-pressed juices to educate people about food sustainability. “One really nice thing about the project is that it is has appeal on lots of levels,” says Debbie Clarke. “It’s addressing some serious environmental and social issues but it’s also attractive to people who just want to do their bit for a good cause.

The Manchester Abundance project estimates that this year they’re picked and distributed around 800kg of fruit and vegetables. The vast majority, they believe, would have gone completely to waste if they hadn’t seized the opportunity to make it available. “We only take surpluses, we’re not looking for charity, so we’re really only dealing with produce that wouldn’t be used otherwise,” says Debbie Clarke. “That’s especially true for the domestic fruit trees we harvest – they’re often far too much for one household to use, and some people aren’t able to pick their fruit at all so it just drops off and rots.”

The project usually finds out about fruit that needs picking from tree owners who have heard about them via local papers, friends, information displays or talks at events and community spaces. They’ve put up posters on allotment sites to encourage plot holders to pass on surpluses, and if they find fruit trees in public places they sometimes harvest those too.

Recently, local food campaigners have sometimes been accused of being concerned with small-scale issues rather than worldwide problems. But the Abundance projects are very much aware of the social as well as environmental effects of food inequality. “The main aim of the project is simply to stop food going to waste, and make the most of the abundance of fresh produce that is and can be produced in our city,” says Debbie Clarke. But at Abundance Manchester, the group has prioritised people in the direst need to provide with fresh food they can rarely afford. Abundance works closely with the Boaz Trust, which supports destitute asylum seekers. “We’ve got to know the project well and have seen that what we provide makes a huge difference to them,” says Clarke. Other recipients include a battered women’s refuge, a hostel for young women, a Salvation Army hostel, a day centre and various community events. “Being able to provide fresh food for shelters and asylum seekers is fantastic, and adds another aspect to what we do,” says Debbie Clarke.

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Article by Sarah Irving for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Interest in local and heritage varieties of fruit trees has grown significantly in recent years, according to Hamid Habibi of the Keepers fruit tree nursery in Kent. Sarah Irving talks to him about growing apple trees and why growing fruit is a good path for the smallholder to go down.

“The growth of interest in local produce has motivated people with a bit of land to try and grow fruit,” says Hamid Habibi. “Fruit is a crop which you can produce as a semi-amateur, if you like – it’s not like trying to grow wheat or other major crops. It can be done on a small scale.”

Habibi has run Keepers Nursery for nearly 20 years, since founder Mike Cook retired.

“It started as a hobby for Mike,” Habibi explains. “He worked for Morley Research Station and was a fruit tree enthusiast. After a while, people started asking him for unusual varieties of apple trees – old varieties or new ones which weren’t commercially available – and he built up a reputation. My wife and I got involved in 1991 because we had some land that the nursery could use.”

Over almost twenty years, Habibi has witnessed the growth of interest in heritage apple varieties and in locally sourced food more generally. He attributes public interest in growing food to rising food prices and then to the current recession.

“Apparently people are spending a lot more time in their own gardens instead of going out and spending money,” he says. “Obviously it makes sense for economic reasons, but its also more interesting to grow things that you then eat.”

This widespread engagement with growing food has meant that Keepers Nursery and other selling a broader range of edible plants have bucked the recessionary trend. “We’ve seen a surge in demand in the last three or four years,” says Hamid Habibi. “And the reports I’m hearing from fellow nurseries is that many of them have had a bumper year too. It’s only December now, which is fairly early, but we’ve already almost sold out of many of our trees this year.”

For aspiring fruit growers – whether smallholders or individuals looking for just one or two orchard trees for their garden – Habibi has some words of advice.

“If you go to your local general nursery or garden centre, the choice you get is extremely limited still and it is mainly pot-grown trees, which are quite honestly not as good as bare root apple trees,” he says. And despite Keepers Nursery’s huge collection of over 600 varieties of apple trees, as well as pears and plums, he urges new growers not to “get too hung up” on the idea of growing local or heritage varieties.

“It’s most important that you pick trees which are going to give a good crop, that are disease resistant and which have nice apples that you and your children are going to like,” he says. “That’s not necessarily going to be local varieties – some are very good, but some are quite indifferent. Quite a lot of commercial varieties are also not that good for small-scale growing, because they don’t have resistance to disease and need spraying. So for an allotment or smallholding, by all means go for a local variety – but only if it fits those other requirements.”

Despite this pragmatic advice, Habibi remains concerned about the fate of some of Britain’s heritage fruit varieties. “We are lucky in this country in that there is still a big national collection at Brogdale, although it’s constantly under threat of extinction from lack of funding,” he says. Keepers Nursery, says Habibi, continues “to try to fill that gap,” supplying unusual types to local authorities, National Trust properties and conservation organisations with a commitment to preserving the huge diversity of Britain’s traditional fruit trees.

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Article by Sarah Irving for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Some varieties of strawberries produce so many runners that a smallholder never has to worry about multiplying strawberry plants. The plants themselves do all the work. This is typical for the June bearing varieties. Unfortunately, June bearing strawberries give you one crop and then go on to put all their energy into runners.

You can choose an assortment of June bearing strawberry varieties so your harvest season lasts longer, but there is a downside. No two varieties of strawberry quite tastes the same or preserves the same. Once your favorite variety finished producing on your smallholding each year, you won’t have fresh strawberries with that same flavour again for another year.

Day neutral and everbearing strawberries are different. If you find an everbearing strawberry variety that you really like, you can expect it put on two crops each year. Some energy will go into runner production, but more of the plant’s energy will go into fruit production.

Day neutral strawberries put almost all their energy into fruit production. Every three weeks from the onset of warm weather, you can expect a flavourful crop to develop every three to four weeks, especially if you keep the fruit picked, the garden well nourished with compost and watered just enough to keep the soil moist but not enough to keep the plants waterlogged (about 1-inch of water per week).

If you want to have a predictable supply of strawberries available all the way into the autumn, you’ll want to multiply your own day-neutral varieties. This can be far less expensive than ordering the typical minimum wholesale order of a 1000 plants, if you don’t have enough room to plant four 15-metre rows of strawberries (at least 4 x 15 metres overall). It is also very risky to order a 1000 plants of a strawberry you have never grown before (one recommendation I tried had less flavour than the grocery store strawberries shipping in from South American—an expensive lesson).

Day neutral strawberries produce very few runners unless you take action to encourage runner production. That action is very simple. First, you use a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen. Organic sources include alfalfa meal and composted chicken manure. This encourages plant growth and discourages flowering. Then you don’t allow the strawberry plants to produce fruit. Every time the strawberry flowers, you clip the flowers off between your fingernails. (This is good practice the first year after you plant anyway.) Allow any runners that develop to root down.

If you want to confirm that you will like the strawberry variety you’ve selected, allow the most robust plant to set fruit in the middle of the summer, remembering that higher nitrogen levels do “dilute” the flavor of the strawberry. This way you can decide if continuing your efforts is worthwhile for the next year.

During the second year, go ahead and allow the strawberry plants to set one initial crop of fruit. Then clip of the flowers for the balance of the growing season. This will encourage all the plant’s energy to go into runner production.

It is very easy to turn a patch of day neutral strawberries into a strong income generator for a smallholding U-pick operation. We generated over £500 each summer just from strawberry sales off our four 15 meter rows of day neutral strawberries. Then we were able to produce value added products that generated additional income from the less marketable strawberries—fresh strawberry tarts, jams and dried strawberries.

So find a space on your smallholding that you are willing to keep weed-free and dedicated to strawberry plant production. It will pay for itself.

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Article by Denise Rutledge for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Smallholding berry farming is one of the most profitable ways to utilize growing space. Whether you pick the berries yourself, or establish a pick-your-own operation, there is money to be made in strawberries. If you establish a reputation for having the best tasting strawberries in the county, you’ll do even better.

When choosing strawberry plants, there are several things to consider, but one of the most important is plant type. Strawberries come in three distinct types: June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral. Here are the differences:

June bearing. These strawberry plants will produce a single flush of flours and produce one crop that is harvested over a 2 – 3 week time span. Then the crop is done for the year, and the plant puts its energy into replicating itself through runners. Subcategories divide June bearing varieties into early, mid-season, and late. You can expect the largest strawberries from June bearing plants.

Everbearing. These strawberry plants will produce two or three harvests beginning in spring and extending into autumn. Because they are always fruiting, these plants produce fewer runners. The strawberries tend to be smaller on everbearing plants if they are not fed properly.

Day Neutral. These strawberry plants don’t require long days to produce flowers, so they produce fruit regularly throughout the growing season. While day neutrals tend to produce flowers in flushes, and mature the crop of strawberries before producing another flush of flowers, there will always be ripe strawberries in the patch. As with everbearing strawberries, day neutral strawberries will shrink in size if the plants are not given the right nutrients.

To maximize your profit potential, make sure you only grow the tastiest varieties of strawberries. In the UK, features such as winter hardiness aren’t a serious issue, so look for plants that yield well. Avoid varieties that tend to produce watery fruit, as these do not freeze well.

Here are some varieties that offer superior flavor with acceptable disease resistance and freezing quality:

June bearing: Gariguette, early; Honeoye, early to mid; Tenira, mid; Chelsea Pensioner, late.

Everbearing: Mara Des Bois, Fort Laramie

Day Neutral: Tribute

The flavour of strawberries is somewhat subjective, but if you love true strawberry flavour, then the varieties above will deliver. I have had wonderful results with Honeoye as a June-bearing strawberry and Tribute as a day neutral. I think they will always be my favorites. The Tribute is such a dark strawberry that you will think you canned blackberry jam instead of strawberry. I tried a day neutral variety named “Aroma” one year. What a disappointment. No organic gardening method over the next three years ever coaxed flavour out of that strawberry, and the results with chemical fertilizers were even worse.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with new releases. Breeders are always striving to improve some aspect of the strawberries available—flavour, disease resistance, shipping quality. Your best sources are online, as few local nurseries are adventurous enough to bring in an unknown variety. Purchase a few plants and see how they do. If you find a winner, you can multiply the plants yourself, or order in bulk.

For information on how to multiply strawberry plants, see the article Multiplying Strawberry Plants for Smallholding Profits.

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Article by Denise Rutledge for Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Gardening through the winter on a smallholding is easiest if you choose the right crops. Some plants need heat to do well—tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans—in fact any plant that produces a fruit doesn’t do well when days get short and temperatures drop. Yes, the green bean is a fruit, even though we eat it as a vegetable. The only fruiting vegetable that is an exception is the green pea. It likes to mature in the cooler temperatures of early spring. But it doesn’t do well when temperatures drop in the autumn. So even the green pea doesn’t work well for winter gardening.

Fortunately, most root vegetables and leafy green vegetables tolerate the cold very well. Some plants like purple sprouting broccoli actually require the cold weather of winter to flower. Starting seedlings of purple sprouting broccoli in autumn means you will have beautiful purple broccoli clusters to decorate your fresh salads with. Only someone with their own garden (does that sound like someone who owns their own smallholding?) is going to enjoy that delicious treat.

Almost every member of the brassica family loves cool temperatures. This is great because this is also one of the most nutritious families of vegetables. Broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips and rutabagas are all excellent sources of both calcium and vitamin C when the soil is nurtured properly. Broccoli and kale are excellent sources of Vitamin A as well.

Which of the brassicas are the best choices for overwintering? The leafy ones. Broccoli leaves are very tasty and can be used like kale in soups and salads. Brussels sprouts actually taste better if they’ve been nipped by a bit o’ frost. Kale is also good to have in the winter garden because you can trim off the outer leaves and continue to harvest all through the winter and into the next spring. I have enjoyed the tenderest kale shoots in the spring, sprouting from kale stalks that died back because they weren’t protected from the harsh elements. The plant is amazingly tough.

Root vegetables overwinter in the garden very well. Consider overwintering carrots, parsnips, beets, celeriac, turnips and rutabagas in the garden instead of harvesting them. If the beds are mulched properly the roots won’t freeze. If you cover the beds with greenhouse plastic and pvc hoops, you can harvest fresh greens and vegetables all winter long. The flavour will be fresher and sweeter.

Spinach and lettuce grows slowly in a winter garden, but if you plant an abundant bed of greens in the autumn, you can use the cut and come-again technique to enjoy salads all winter long.

To start a salad garden in the middle of the winter, prepare seed flats with 72 cells (too few cells and the plants have to get too large before you can transplant them; too many and the plants aren’t vigorous enough to tolerate the move into the cold). Use a starter mix that is designed for starting seeds. Sprinkle lettuce seeds on top of the soil and cover the flat with plastic (lettuce needs light to sprout). Follow planting instructions for other greens. Now place the seed flats in a warm and bright location in your home. When the seedlings are about 2 inches tall and the roots well developed, start putting the flats outside during days that are above freezing. This will toughen or “harden” them off.

Now, you can plant the seedlings into your prepared garden bed. The best day is one that is overcast but not raining. That way you know temperatures are less likely to drop below freezing. Do avoid planting when temperatures are expected to fall below freezing. The shock may be too great.

Believe it or not, you can start radishes and beets in cell trays as well. It’s a trick that some Canadians use to get a head start on spring gardening.

Last of all, don’t ignore growing your own celery. You can use the green leafy outer stems all winter to season soups and stews. In the spring, the celery will flower, and you will be able to harvest your own celery seed and make celery salt.

For more about winter gardening on a smallholding see WINTER PLANTING ON A SMALLHOLDING: Ways to Keep Your Winter Garden Warm and WINTER PLANTING ON A SMALLHOLDING: Preparing your planting beds.
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Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

If you want to enjoy a productive winter garden, you will have to trap the sun and insulate plants from the cold. It isn’t as hard as you might think. And it doesn’t have to be expensive either. For years, I had a winter garden even in Canada’s fabled harsh winters. In the UK, keeping your winter garden warm is much easier.

I’ll share with you the easiest and cheapest way to keep your plants cosy. Go down to your local hardware store and purchase PVC pipes that are the lightest schedule available (schedule 40 is too stiff) and 3/4-inches thick. You will want each length to be three metres long. You will also need to purchase rebar that is small enough for the pipe to slide over.

Here’s how to calculate how much PVC pipe and rebar you will need. Measure the length of your planting bed/boxes. You will need one 9-metre pipe for every 3 metres of bed. Add one extra pipe for the second end of the bed. Now, multiply the number of pipes by 0.5. That will tell you how many metres of rebar you need.

Now, gather the rest of the tools you will need—a heavy maul and one u-strap to attach each rebar post to the box (if you have wood sides on your grow-beds). Mark where each pipe is going to go. This will be right beside the edge of the grow box or bed, making sure that the pipes will span the grow box or bed at a right angle. Use the heavy maul to pound the rebar stake into the ground. Leave at least 15 cm of rebar exposed above the box side. Bolt the rebar to the box using the u-straps.

Slide pipes over all the rebar stakes along one side of the bed. Now, gently bend the pipe down so it can slide over the rebar on the opposite side of the bed. This will be next to impossible if you try to do it in the middle of the winter. The pipes will break instead of bending unless you apply heat from a hand torch all along the length of the pipe, but especially to the middle third. It’s also a lot easier to do this job with the help of a friend.

Once you have that done, you can cover the beds with plastic. While greenhouse plastic is the best option because it will last for 5 or more years, if your budget is really tight you can use clear construction plastic. You will need enough plastic to enclose the entire grow bed. Plan on adding an extra 15 metres to the length of the bed. Drape the plastic over the hoops, making sure that it hangs evenly to each side and at the ends. I tuck the ends like an envelope, folding in the sides first and then pulling down the centre.

There is a great clip on the market that I used in Canada and the U.S. known as the Garden Clip® Fastener. It holds plastic to PVC pipes securely in all but the most windy conditions. This is the best way to secure your plastic. But I know that other methods work as well. For years, I couldn’t afford the clips, so I used materials I had on hand. For years I just gathered all the stones in my garden and put them on top of the plastic that reached the ground. To keep wind from blowing under the plastic, I mulched all the way around my grow bed with grass clippings saved over the summer. Then someone gave me some lumber so I stapled the plastic to sections of board. When I needed to get into the grow box, I just removed the stones, or propped up the boards. I decided that shorter beds were more convenient because I could often just reach in from the ends instead of having to move several rows of stones.

I have found that placing plastic jugs full of water in the grow bed helps keep the beds warmer. If you paint them black, they do an even better job, because they absorb heat from the sun. You can also use black plastic pails. If you place one 40 litre pail every 6 metres, on the north side of the bed, the plants will capture all the rays they need while the black pail will catch the heat, even when the sun isn’t shining brightly. Using a dark mulch helps as well. In the spring, I’ve used fresh grass clippings as a mulch (that saved my tomatoes from a late frost one year).

Of course there are more expensive ways to keep your winter garden warm. You can invest in a greenhouse. Acrylic or fibreglass panels offer the most efficient heat retention. Acrylic stays clear longer. Glass lets sun and warmth in very well, but unless you invest in double panes, all that warmth will flow out at night unless you cover the greenhouse with an insulating blanket. Even with insulated glass, installing insulating shades is highly recommended.

You can also install water pipes in the bottoms of your grow beds. By running hot water through the pipes, you provide warmth to the root zone which then transfers to the entire grow bed. This is a costly option best saved to a small greenhouse in which you want to nurture some tropical treasures or grow winter tomatoes.

So now you know how to keep your grow boxes from freezing. The next step for preparing a winter garden on a smallholding is to choose the right vegetables. We’ll share why fruiting vegetables don’t do well in a winter garden in WINTER PLANTING ON A SMALLHOLDING: Choosing the Right Winter Crops

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Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

Preparing your planting beds

Winter farming is one of the best ways to enjoy fresh produce year round. If you plan carefully, you can enjoy fresh salad greens, peas, beets and carrots all through the cold winter months. And you can get a head start on your spring garden while you are at it.

One of the most important concerns for a winter garden is light. Days are shorter and the sun is also lower in the sky. No matter how beautiful a greenhouse or cold frame you build, if it isn’t placed in a location where it will get the maximum light available, the plants inside will not do well. So the first thing you must do is plan the location for your winter plantings so it can take advantage of any sunny days you have.

Once you have the right location selected, then you need to consider the needs of the plants. While you can plant straight into the ground, you can only do this if you prepare the ground carefully. The first step to proper ground preparation is to double dig the area.

Double digging is a technique that aerates the soil while bringing nutrients up from deep in the ground. The basic technique is the same no matter what size of bed you make. First, you remove the top layer of soil from an area that is one spade wide by one spade deep. Set this soil to the side. Fill the resulting hole about half full with compost. Add lime and a good quality organic fertilizer using the recommendations on the package. It can be a good idea to add some kelp meal at this stage as well, once again using the recommendations on the package.

Now, dig down so you loosen the soil beneath the mulch about one spade depth again. This will mix the mulch and fertilizer together with the subsoil. If you notice that this fluffs everything up so that the trench seems to be full, don’t worry. That’s what you want.

Now move over one spade’s width. Dig down one spade’s depth, tossing that soil onto the soil you just loosened up. Fill this new trench with compost, lime, fertilizer and kelp meal. Loosen the soil at the bottom of the trench, mixing the compost and everything else.

Repeat these steps until you have loosened the entire planting bed. When you reach the end, add the soil that you set aside. The main thing that you will notice is that when you are done, you will have the equivalent of a raised bed, with the soil being anywhere from 10 to 15 cm higher than the ground around it. The roots of your plants will love it!

You don’t want to walk on all your hard labour, so stick with beds that are around one metre wide. This is an easy width to work with because you can reach into the middle of the bed without losing your balance. Much wider than one meter and the bed becomes less functional.

Even if you plan on using grow boxes, double dig the soil beneath each grow box. There are several reasons to do this. 1) You can work manure into the very bottom layer (instead of compost). The manure will provide bottom heat all through the winter, but because it is in the bottom of the trench it won’t burn the roots of the plants. Next spring, the beds will be ready for a second double digging and produce a wonderful crop. 2) It will improve your yield considerably and support the health of your plants. 3) Aerated soil does not conduct cold as effectively. You don’t want the cold coming in from the side and damaging the roots of your plants.

Many smallholders find that putting a low border around each bed is helpful. While bricks are high enough, they conduct cold. Surrounding the bed with 100mm by 200mm sleepers will insulate the bed from the cold.

The next step for preparing a winter garden is to cover and insulate your planting beds. There are several ways to do this, which we will discuss in the next article, WINTER PLANTING ON A SMALLHOLDING: Ways to Keep Your Winter Garden Warm.

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Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

The Women’s Institutes’ National Cookery School is to play a key role at The Edible Garden Show after agreeing to stage a series of cookery demonstrations and other food-related events at the show.

The WI National Cookery School, based at Denman College in Oxfordshire, has become one of the UK’s most popular cookery institutions since its launch last year.

Allie Hogsbjerg, a spokesman for the WI, said: “We are delighted to have been invited to provide cookery demonstrations at The Edible Garden Show. It promises to be a super show and experts from the WI will be on hand throughout the event with great ideas and recipes for your home-grown produce.”

But it’s not only cookery advice that the WI will be concentrating on. Their team will also run seminars on preserving, baking and even bread-making.

There will also be a high-profile event on the opening day where the WI will be promoting its ‘SOS for honey bees’ campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of the honey bee and the vital role they play in pollinating plants for fruits and crops.

Allie Hogsbjerg said: “Home-grown food, sustainability and safe-guarding the honey bee are all massively important environmental issues. The Edible Garden Show is an excellent vehicle to promote our various campaigns and help to educate the public about the benefits of growing their own food.”

The Edible Garden Show is the UK’s first-ever national garden show dedicated exclusively to ‘Grow Your Own’ food. It has been launched amid the phenomenal explosion of interest in ‘Grow Your Own’ and is a “must-see” event whether you are a seasoned gardener who spends every spare minute on the allotment or a complete novice daunted by planting a few vegetables in the back garden.

The Edible Garden Show 2010 will be staged over three days from Friday, March 19 to Sunday, March 21 at Stoneleigh Park – Britain’s most famous agricultural venue.

The ultimate Grow Your Own event, the show is targeted towards anyone passionate about Grow Your Own, Brew Your Own… or anything to do with healthy eating or home produce. From fruit and veg to bread making, from poultry to organic herbs, and from bee keeping to home brewing, there will be something of interest for all the family.

Tickets for The Edible Garden Show are now on sale via the ticket hotline 0871 231 0847 or on-line at www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk

Admission is £12 for adults, £9.60 for over 65s and children aged 11-16 (20% concession on the full adult price), with under 11-year-olds free when accompanied by a full fare paying adult (maximum two children per adult). Students with a valid Student’s Union Card also qualify for the 20% price concession.

For information on how to become a sponsor or an exhibitor at the show, contact Show Director Anna Campagnoli on 07876338400.

You can find out everything you want to know about the show and all the very latest news from the Edible Garden Show website.

About the WI National Cookery School:

Founded on years of experience and culinary expertise, the WI Cookery School programme combines the teaching of traditional skills with innovative and creative ideas. The WI Cookery School offers a fantastic range of over 100 day schools, residential courses and family courses.

For information on the full programme of courses, call 01865 391991 or email info@denman.org.uk

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One of the joys of owning your own smallholding may be found in the heirloom apple trees around the property. Don’t think that because these trees are currently producing only wormy worthless fruit that they are only good for firewood. These old trees can produce an abundant crop of apples just right for making your own apple cider, apple butter and apple sauce if they are cared for properly.

The key to resuscitating these older trees is a little loving care—the same kind of care you give younger apple trees. When you know how to care for the apple trees on your property, you will be amazed at just how much you can increase the yields from these old trees. And often you will discover that the flavor of these heirloom cultivars is superior to any of the newer varieties.

Autumn is just the right time to start. First, rake away all the leaves and fallen apples and compost them. The heat of composting will kill off many of next year’s pests. Then, prune away any dead sections in the tree (saving these branches for smoking your favorite cut of meat). It is important to cut flush with the branch, so that the bark can grow over the cut. An application of pruning seal will protect the wood from fungus and rot through the damp winter months.

Even if your trees have been weathering winter for many years, it’s a good idea to apply a thick layer of mulch around each tree. The tree’s roots extend all the way out to the tips of the branches, so mulch the entire area covered by the tree’s canopy. That way the nutrients from the mulch will soak into the ground right where the tree most needs it.

Your trees will also benefit from a protective wrap of burlap. This protects the trunk of the tree from cold damage, making it more likely that all the branches will receive all the sap they need in the spring. Start where the first branches split off the trunk and wrap all the way to the ground.

Now you are ready for the last autumn task—applying dormant spray. Dormant spray is available in both petroleum and natural oil formulas. The formula includes an emulsifier so the oil mixes with water and sticks to the tree. Once all the leaves have dropped, spray the entire tree thoroughly. The goal is to kill any insects and mites that could harbor in the buds and crevices of the tree. Many fungal problems are also smothered by dormant spray.

It’s best to wait until late winter to prune your apple trees, before the days start warming back up to 5°. The trees will be completely dormant by then. Remove any branches that cross each other. The goal is to allow light into the middle of the tree and keep branches about 10 to 15 centimeters apart. In the spring, when the sap starts to run, the tree will have plenty of energy to produce fruit.

Give the trees another spray. BioNeem is an excellent organic oil that will make a major difference in the health of your trees come spring. This is the one spray you don’t want to miss!

When the ground thaws in the spring, it is time to feed your apple trees. Apples love potassium so save any wood ashes in a dry place. They are a great natural source for both potassium and calcium. You will also want to sprinkle some seaweed meal around the drip line of the tree. This will provide micronutrients. You can also use an organic fertilizer containing blood, fish and bone meal. The important thing to remember is that the active roots are where the tips of the branches are, not near the trunk of the tree.

Encourage the best fruit set, by avoiding the use of pesticides on your trees. You don’t want to kill the bees, butterflies or at this stage, even wasps who pollinate the flowers. If you must apply a pesticide, do it after the sun goes down. Bees aren’t active at this time of day.

If a late frost or a windstorm doesn’t thin your fruit for you, you may choose to thin the apples by hand. The more fruit on the tree, the smaller the apples will be, especially if the tree hasn’t been pruned in a while. For cider and applesauce, size doesn’t really matter, but larger fruit is nicer for baking and eating out of hand.

Don’t give up if the first year doesn’t give you the results you had hoped for. A tree can be so starved for nutrition that all your hard work the first year just goes to nurturing the tree. If two years of coddling doesn’t do the trick, then consider removing the tree, remembering that apples do set more fruit every other year.

If you do remove an old tree, don’t try planting another apple tree (or a pear tree) in its place. No apple or pear will do well for at least five years after an older tree has been removed. If you notice, you don’t see very many apple seedlings around an old tree. The mature tree poisons them as they sprout.

Instead, look for another spot on your holding to plant your new apple trees. Your best option is to purchase grafted apple trees that use a dwarfing root stock. You can plant the trees much closer together, and it is easier to keep them pruned to picking height. Give them the same loving care you gave your older trees and within two or three years, you can begin letting two or three apples set. Your new trees will help to pollinate any older trees on your property.

All it takes is a little care every year and your apple trees will reward you with an abundant harvest. That old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” may be as much myth as wisdom, but all the delectable treats those apples produce can be a major boost to your health and wealth when managing a small holding.

Still looking for Your Smallholding? Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

Click on the links below for more info on learning to care for your apple trees:

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine

This time of the year when it’s all just a bit too cold, dark and brrrhhh, it’s very tempting for smallholders and allotment owners alike to get ’stuck’ in front of that log burner on those cold dark days, enjoying hearty food made from our own produce and perhaps partaking of our own home brews.

But there may be some tasks around your smallholding that you have overlooked. November is a good time to catch up, gale force winds and torrential rain this year permitting of course ; )

If the following jobs still need to be done, don’t put them off.  Putting in some hard work now will pay dividends come next year.

Collect any seeds that you want to have for next year.

I like to collect seeds from the lettuce plants that bolted after holding out the longest. I’ve kept a lovely variety of deep red cos going for several years, just by allowing it to be the only lettuce I let go to seed.

I also make sure that I bring those dried bean pods in before the mould and mildew take hold. My favorite called the “Heirloom” has a wonderful flavour.

Harvest the autumn crops:

Pull those garlic bulbs and hang them up to dry in a sheltered place. Do the same with any onions.

Dig up the potatoes. Don’t leave them out on the ground. Spread them out in a sheltered place and cover with burlap so they can dry completely. The less light they are exposed to, the fewer green potatoes you will have later.

Also, gather those Winter squash. Rub them down with a cloth dipped in a dilute Clorox® solution, then put away in a dark, cool place. Over-sized marrows will also store for months if sterilized in this way.

Start preserving.

Start turning your apples and pears into your own naturally sweet pie fillings. Try using fruit juice concentrates to intensify the natural fruit flavor. The websites at the end of this article offer some great info on creating your own natural pie fillings.

Turn those apples and pears into other delights as well—apple sauce, pear butter, cider.

Harvest your Autumn herbs—thyme, oregano, rosemary, winter savory, etc. Be sure to hang them in a warm place or dry in a food dehydrator.

Prepare your garden for next year.

Add a layer of compost to all your garden beds. That way the compost won’t be hot in the spring when you go to plant. It will also minimize weed growth.

Prepare at least one cold frame. Make sure that you have at least 18-inches dug out below the ground. Then add a 6-inch layer of uncomposted manure, such as cow dung, chicken manure, sheep droppings or horse manure. Add a 12-inch layer of compost above this. You can plant lettuce, spinach, kale and other greens in the cold frame this month, and harvest greens all winter long. The manure at the very bottom will keep the bed warm for several months.

Wrap your fruit tree’s trunks with burlap or tree wrap to protect the trees from winter freeze and thaw cycles.

Give your fruit trees their first spray of dormant spray.

Clean up.

Clean the chicken coop. Chickens tend to molt around this time of year, so it’s a good time to make sure that their environment is clean.

Clean up any leaves and fallen fruit from underneath your fruit trees. This will prevent harmful pests from overwintering and damaging next year’s fruit crop.  

Still looking for Your Smallholding?  Visit Greenshifters for the latest smallholdings for sale, rent and exchange.

Click on the links below for more info on creating your own pies and pie fillings:

Jamie Oliver on assembling fruit pies

Recipes for creating your own naturally sugar free pie fillings

A delicious pie recipe using Autumn fruits

Lots of tried and tested fruit pie recipes with ratings

Article by Rural Smallholdings Magazine