Apple harvest reaches its end

My attempt to make a final 10 litres of cider yesterday was a disappointing but illuminating failure. I collected over a hundred windfall apples, picking up only the nicest, most recently fallen specimens. They were rinsed in rainwater, then taking the first 25 to wash properly in hot water. I took the first five - the nicest of the nicest - clean skins, no bruising. Cutting them in half, every one of them was internally bruised. Putting them into the juicer, the resulting liquid was dense - more mousse than juice - and passing it through a sieve, what came out lacked taste, sweetness or acidity.

Different apple varieties have different properties - my Antonówka apples are soft, not particularly resilient, bruise easily and do not store well. Hence they are only now found on small, private orchards. Commercial growers produce for supermarkets' needs - harder,

After a short (and cold!) motorbike ride before the winter lay-up, I went for a long walk around the local orchards. Most have been picked clean. Small groups of gleaners moved among the unfenced orchards, picking up from the ground nicer apples that were the discarded by the commercial pickers. Here and there, one finds smaller, non-commercial orchards, typically growing traditional varieties of apple, unfenced, unsprayed, unharvested, such as the one below.

Last week, the punkty skupu - the fruit collection/buying points - were besieged by long queues of tractors hauling trains of trailers piled high with wooden crates packed with apples. Today, Sunday, the punkty skupu are closed, but I guess the peak is over. Below: a solitary apple in a puddle across the road from the punkt skupu near Widok.

I came across a single pear tree, surrounded by apple trees on an unfenced orchard. There were a large number of pears lying under it; I took two yesterday, peeled and juiced them - they were amazing. Sweet, much juicier than my apples (350ml from just two, so around six to the litre, rather than ten apples). I went back today to collect another four - they'll probably start to spoil soon. This does tempt me to make a five-litre demijohn of perry next autumn as a trial.

When the sun pops out, autumn colours light up and everything is beautiful. Below: the track from Machin II towards Adamów Rososki.

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