Our new orchard

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In the past winter a new orchard was planted on our farm. It consists of six acres of Elstar apples, along with pollinators. The three different Elstar types are called, Excellent Star, Elshof, and Elswood. The pollinators are of the new disease-resistant varieties Pinova and Topaz.
While the project had been planned for some time, the actual work commenced last summer. At that time we began preparing the land by working the soil to be sure that it would not be too hard to dig when the winter came. We marked out where the lines of trees were to go, with a little mark placed where each pole would be. We borrowed a tractor-mounted auger from Derek O’Dwyer in Piltown, and used that to make the holes for the poles. These were put into the holes in the summer, and tapped in with a device we call “the man-killer”. This is a post driver that is used manually, and working with it for an hour is as good as a week in the gym. Once the poles were in, we needed to wait for the trees.
The best time for planting is winter, because the trees are fully dormant. We waited until the end of January, and then began planting, taking three weeks to plant about 5600 trees by hand. These were then tied to the posts, and little more needs to be done to them this year. They will not give any apples in the first year, but should begin in 2006.
One of the most interesting things about planting our new orchard this year was that it gives us a chance to try some apples we haven’t had before. This time, we managed to get single specimen trees of a selection of old varieties from a friend in Dublin. So we now have about fifty varieties of old apples on trial. I have about half of them listed here, and I will list the others in our forthcoming newsletter. If any of the names stir any recollections for you, especially how the specific apples tasted, and how best to grow them, I would love to hear about it.
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Kingston Black
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Tom Putt
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John Standish
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Golden Bittersweet
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London Pippin
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Irish Peach
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Hoary Morning
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Holstein Cox
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Norfolk Royal Russet
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Kerry Pippin
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Lane’s Prince Albert
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Court of Wick
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Newton Wonder
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Cats Head
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Charles Ross
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Ben’s Red
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Brownlees Russet
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Cockle Pippin
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Adams Pearmain
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Allington Pippin
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Annie Elizabeth
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Browne’s Apple
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Cornish Aromatic
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Morton Russet
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Woolbrook Pippin
In our farm-shop at the moment
At the moment we have Jonagored eating apples and Bramley cookers. While the eaters will soon be gone, we still have plenty of cookers, which we expect to have on sale until May or even later.
As usual we have apple juice, apple jelly, and strawberry and plum jams for sale, as well as farm-made cider vinegar. At €2.00 for a 750ml bottle, the apple juice is still the same price as when we started selling it ten years ago. If only I could say the same about the price of a pint.
We still have raspberry & apple juice mix and strawberry & apple juice mix too. Ann Keating’s fine Bay Lough cheeses are also available from our shop.
Juice stockists
We have two new outlets that sell our juice. One is John Griffin’s shop in William St., Listowel, and the other is MeKeogh’s Londis on the Ballina (Co. Tipperary) side of the Shannon at Killaloe, Co. Clare. So anyone living in these areas, thirsty for juice, can now save a trip to Cahir.
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