The Start of Our Apple Empire

The seven apple trees (six cookers, one eater) in our back garden are absolutely laden with fruit; one tree was so over-laden in fact that one of its boughs had split and was half hanging off. Clearly it was time to take action, so on Sunday afternoon we trooped round there with a trug and a few bags and started picking. Unfortunately, DC got bored quite quickly and then had a bit of a hissy fit when Hubby wouldn't let him play with the saw that was needed to remove the broken bough. So that brought our apple picking to a swift end. Still, we had filled the trug and one large carrier bag and left hundreds of apples on the trees to soak up the afternoon sun (that was Sunday, today they'll be soaking up the pouring rain and making the most of this delightful "summer" weather). Then it was time to head to the pub for the weekly Sunday afternoon entertainment which, this week, was belly dancing, accompanied by lamb kofta and veggie kebabs cooked over the fire pit. Hubby got chatting to the chef there about apples and on Monday took a large trug along to the pub and agreed to swap them for some beer and a portion of their fantastic triple-cooked fat chips - result!

Then this morning I called in at our village shop with several kilos of apples and they are now on sale there;not only that, but a request has been made for Hubby to take a sample of his apple chutney along and they may start offering that for sale as well. I foresee a happy and prosperous retirement (and many trips to the local hostelry) all funded by apples...