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Saturday, February 22, 2014

Harvesting Beurre Bosc Pears, Gardens Prepped for Autumn, Dragon Fruit

Two weeks ago after looking up the Vintage Book to see when we have  harvested the Beurre Bosc in previous years I tested a pear for sugar. It came in at 15 Brix. The records showed that we normally harvest about the 19th February and that the sugar levels were 15 Brix. With the fruit hanging well we agreed to leave it on the tree a little longer. Another sample today showed 21 Brix. Probably an abnormally high reading pear but high enough to assume that it won't go much further.


The fruit harvested was in excellent shape varying in size from small tom exceedingly large. This dry weather Summer has really produced some incredible fruit in the Orchard. The haul came in at just over 36 kilograms. In previous years the harvest has been so small we never even bothered to weigh the result.


Tomorrow after the morning Bee club meet the bulk of the fruit will be processed through the scratter and fermented into Perry. We are currently working our way through two Blue cheeses, a Stilton and a Roquefort. Slices of pear go nicely.

The garden continued to receive attention with the final vegetable bed being cleared of Summer weeds. A little compost spread over it and a coating of Lucerne mulch with a good wetting. It feels great to have prepared all the beds ahead of Autumn making it so easier to slowly plant out new seeds and seedlings. As soon as the temperature is right we'll sow some green manure crops on some sections. In todays bed as an experiment we tried to avoid disturbing the soil. No forking over or removing roots just surface weeding.


Some of the weeds including massive Parsley plants gone to seed

We at Dragon Fruit after dinner.

It looks like a bowl of Ice Cream

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