Fruit Harvest September 1998
This years Cox crop will be remembered for its good sized fruit but its lack of colour. Much of the fruit was set in the centre of the trees and did not receive sufficient sunlight to achieve adequate colour for supermarket sales. About 75% of a full crop, we feel dissapointed by the very low prices that we received upto Christmas. Since the end of January the market has lifted but, or course, we only have a small amount of fruit left to sell.
With the biggest and best crop of Conference pears for many a year we were hopeful of a successful year. Picking was quick and easy and Wye Fruit had opted for the early market to reduce the storage and handling costs. The grade-out was good but unfortunately there was no sale for the second class fruit and they had to be sold for juice. This removed the 'cream from the crop' so to speak and financially resulted in a very ordinary year.
We only grow a very few Discovery but they always look good in a photo!
We bought the crop of a small orchard from a close neighbour this year. The varieties included; Cox, Egremont Russet and Worcester. The crop on all varieties was light but the Worcesters were a good size and quality.
A good crop of Bramley this year, let down only by one hectare was very light because of a late frost around blossom time. If it wasn't for that it might have been a record year!. The majority of our Bramley crop is grown specifically for the 'Peeling' trade. That is to say they will end up in apple pies of Messrs Kipling etc. The price of Bramleys has held up well this year and the crop has been sold well so at least we have someting to smile about!