Our lovely apple tree in full blossom

Our house was build in the 1970s on the site of an old orchard. For some reason the developers left one of the old apple trees in our garden and it has formed a lovely feature ever since we moved in in 2000.

It has its drawbacks of course, shading plants and getting in the way when mowing but it produces an abundant quantity of apples early in the season.

We did not know the variety so we took it up to the Brogdale National Fruit Collection Open Day and they identified it as a Worcester Permain.

At this time of the year its blossom is truely wonderful and is alive with bees. Although peak blossom time usually coincides with a strong gale as it did again this year. Come August and early September we're hard at work juicing many trugs of apples. It produces the most vibrant pink juice which we freeze and enjoy throughout the winter. We also make apple chutney and freeze apples for pies as well as eating all we can. Even so I don't think we use even half of what this grand old tree produces.

I want to learn how to make cider, but I think you need more than one variety and the equipment for chopping and pressing the apples doesn't come cheap