Thursday 22nd November 2018
A leggy young Moorhen ran nervously ahead of me down the central path leading to the poultry pens and paddocks today. This is only the third time I have seen one of these on the farm. Hopefully this mini run of notable birds will continue.
I saved the medlars from the geese today. Just a week ago the tree was looking amazing in its best autumn finery. The fruits were still hard and not yet ready for picking.
What a contrast today. The tree was bare of all leaves and the geese had plundered any low-hanging fruit. The fruits had softened nicely, presumably helped by a couple of decent frosts.
This process is known as bletting. Medlars are an old-fashioned fruit, not well-known, but they make for a wonderful addition to the orchard and are well-worth growing with a delicious flavour when made into medlar jelly or medlar cheese.
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harvested medlars
(I make no excuses for displaying them
in my first ever independently made basket)
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