Jon picks some of his Bramley apples for us

We visited Middleyard where Symon and Jon have a wonderful house with a stream running down past the front door where watercress flourishes. I'm rather envious. They also have quite a few fields and have made a huge effort to make it all productive. 

They have countless fruit trees including damsons, plums, quince and of course apples galore. Of the species we saw, most of them had lots of wind fallen fruit but apparently the apples have never produced more. S and J offered us some cooking apples and we could also have used their hand turned juicer to make fresh apple juice, but we didn't have the time.

We had two huge bags and filled them with two types of apple. The first was of wind fall from a 'Prince Albert' tree which I hope to use for chutney although Helena used some for juice when we got home as well as making a fabulous apple flapjack with oats this afternoon.

The second bag was filled with these handpicked Bramley apples which we will store carefully and hope they will last until Christmas, as Jon thinks they will. Yummy. They are good cookers. I loved the brilliance of their colours and was surprised at how red they are. Jon says that they have received a lot of sunlight and that turns them from the more normal looking deep green of a Bramley into these things of beauty.