July horrors

This is turning out to be a very strange season. Fruiting times are very unpredictable - some varieties are ripening extra early, catching me unawares. St Edmund's Pippin is a whole month early, as I discovered when my cockerels ate all the fruit they could eat near the ground, plus the blackbirds had made some holes further up. I left Irish Peaches far too long on the tree, with the result that they were all pithy and flavourless when I tried them, with the inedible, leathery skin I'd expect in such a dry season. Meanwhile, my early pear Morrettini shows no sign of ripening yet. Most of the fruit appears undersized, pears in particular, and I suspect will have unpleasant skins. Meanwhile, we picked our earliest ever greengage yesterday, and the crop on both our standard plums is heaviest we have had to date.