How to harvest your early apple and pears
IT may not be autumn yet but the first apples and pears of the season will be ready to harvest over the next few weeks.
If you are beginning to see full-size windfalls, that’s a good indication that your apple or pear tree is ready to release its crop of crisp, juicy, fruit.
But instead of picking the lot it is best to just take the ones that are truly ripe at this stage, and leave the rest on the tree to sweeten.
Those that are ready to eat now will come off the tree in your hand with just the gentlest of twists to the stalk.
If there is any resistance then the fruit isn’t quite ready yet so you can leave it for a day or two.
The beauty of this approach is that you don’t have to store your apples or pears, but it’s worth thinking ahead about how you are going to store them once they are all ripe.
Early dessert apples and pears are best eaten straight away, but later varieties often improve by being stored for a while.
So why not ask staff at a supermarket whether you can take away fruit boxes they have finished with?
Even better are the polystyrene trays with fruit-shaped dips in them, that will protect your crop from bruising.
A little bit of forward planning now should mean you can enjoy eating home-grown apples and pears all through autumn – and maybe beyond.
