Last Pixies

Tidying away the fruit boxes, came across some more Pixies which were surprisingly good. Most of the acidity has gone by now, slightly dry but now very sweet with a strong flavour of pear drops, certainly these well-ripened ones hadn't lost flavour, just acidity. Really ought to plant another one, or top something less good with it.

Happy New Year

A belated Happy New Year to my few followers. Another year begun badly with nearly all online and offline activity cut for months due to a bout of keratitis, I hope this is finally responding to steroids.

Lets start the New Year, with the remnants of the Old, with the last of last year's crop just about lasting. This is the first year that Josephine de Malines produced a crop and they have kept much longer in store than my other late pear Winter Nellis, most of which seemed to disintegrate when the temperature fell to -12º before Christmas. Shrivelling slightly at the top, but still quite firm. Flavour isn't top notch, a little dry and astringent but hardly surprising this late. Apples are still firm, almost crisp but I think Pixie is starting to lose flavour a little now; the Rosemary Russet is holding up better, but we will shortly run out of all of them.

crop: Pixie and Rosemary Russet (our late varieties)

A very disappointing crop of both Pixie and Rosemary Russet, our late apple cultivars. Rosemary was probably having a slightly 'biennial' year after cropping well last year, but Pixie was very badly affected by codling moth for the first time, leaving us with only one medium-sized box to see us through into Spring.

Blossom - Pixie

Reliable and beautiful as ever, Pixie.

Crop: Pixie

Another excellent crop on the Pixie cordon, despite a bumper one last year as well. This variety kept us in fresh apples until March this year (although the skins had started to shrivel, the flesh was still crisp). One cordon is not enough, so I plan to add it as an extension to one of the less-productive cordons, probably the King Russet.

Apple: Pixie

Cordon Pixie is showing a reasonable number of fruit, despite having a very heavy crop last year.

Pixie: Blossom

A favourite variety. Nice blossom, compact growth, free spurring. We finished ate our last one on March 1st, still crisp and flavoursome.