You can always tell when a crab apple is ripe. Pick one and bite it. If you scream it is not. But if your face just wrinkles up as if you were sucking a lemon, then it is probably about right…. Crab apples really are some of the bitterest fruit around.
I know this blog is themed around hedging, but…. June and July is the time of year that your gooseberries should be ready for picking – traditionally this is at Whitsun (which is the seventh Sunday after Easter Sunday) but as Easter this year was the earliest that it has been since 1913, on 23rd March, this means that you traditionally would have been picking by 17th May, which would have been far too early!
When you have enough Elderflower Cordial (you can get to our favourite recipe here) you might like to think about Elderflower Champagne. By the way it is a good excuse to plant a few more Elder (Sambucus nigra) bushes - available at http://store.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Common-Elder-Sambucus-nigra as you will find you have friends calling round in June and July almost daily and for the oddest reasons…..
This an excellent recipe which can be adapted to accommodate almost any hedge (and its fruit). Please remember to check that something is safe (if you are not sure) before cooking and eating it….. With the exception of Elderberries (you can buy Elder trees seperately from us at Sambucus nigra), all the plants that produce the berries in this recipe are likely to be in a pack of Conservation Hedge Mix hedging.
Ingredients