My first Pineberry, she's a beaut. I think I'll name her Penelope! She has a lovely blush due to all this sun however, some years she will be white, then the red seeds will really pop! It's sweet, then tangy and then a hint of pineapple comes through.

When potting up our bare root raspberry canes when they arrived. We had lots of fibrous root trimmings left over. Rather than throw them in the composter we thought we'd just plant them all and see what happens. I'm pleased to say it looks like we will have many more plants from them.

One of several wholly unnatural tree forms, but I’ve always had a soft spot for a well trained Espalier, this one an Apple Tree on the wall at Lyveden near Oundle. #TreeOfTheDay

🌸 🍭 Apple Blossom lollipops 🍭 🌸

I enjoyed a fantastic opportunity yesterday to learn propagation techniques from some of the best in the industry #hortistry is a new venture bridging the skills gaps in horticulture. A big thank you to @thedirt_news It was a great day of learning, sharing and networking with others.

The beginning of every fruit. Every flower is potentially one fruit...if someone doesn't come along and pick them of course! However, we wouldn't want every bloom to be pollinated as the tree would be very stressed (as would the orchardist who has to thin the fruit out!)

🍓 🍓 Our strawberry seedlings have been pricked out and are now nicely settled in their own cells. Varieties sown by seed are Gariguette, Mara de Bois and many wild Strawberries. All the other varieties were brought bare root. We will be trialling 14 different varieties, one of which is a climber.

It's very nearly apple blossom season in our neck of the woods, so it seems like a good time to re-post the photo essay I put together in 2023: 'Lifecycle of an Apple, From Bud to Blossom to Fruit' orchardnotes.com/2023/03/28/l... Many, many more photos via the link. #apples #blossom #fruit

A day of appreciation! A lovely day, lovely trees, lovely pear blossom, pruning almost finished... Although, I was swiftly brought back down to earth when I hit myself on the head with my secateurs whilst moving the ladder! #igotskills 😂✂️🪜🤕 #blossom #kitchengarden #orchard #peartrees

I spent a lovely couple of days this week helping out at a Family run PYO Cherry farm in Buckinghamshire. The trees are trained on the UFO system. UFO stands for Upright Fruiting Offshoot and is a system of growing Cherries to maximise light, yield and airflow. It also makes picking a lot easier.

We will be growing lots of new fruit at Le Manoir. Starting with Almonds. A few tips - 🥜 They are related to peaches, so Peach leaf curl is something to look out for. 🌞 They want as much sun as you can throw at them!

If sugar puffs grew on trees!

Now that's an Espalier! Note tools on bottom right for scale!!!

Brr!..but beautiful!

A leaf hammock for some of our best beneficial insects in the orchard. Aphids are one of the biggest pests in orchards. One ladybird can eat up to 60 aphids a day! Or up to 5000 in their lifetime. That's a lot of help. At the moment, they are hibernating and having a well deserved rest.

Well, Strawberries have the cutest true leaves I have ever seen!!! 🍓 #strawberries #strawberry #strawberryseedlings #gariguette #strawberrygariguette #fraise #fraisegariguette #maradesbois #strawberrymaradesbois #fraisemaradesbois #gyostrawberries #gyofruit #growyourownfruit

It does make me laugh that the Kiwis are absolutely fine every single day. Then the first proper frost makes it say "nope" and every leaf comes off. Some plants have proper personalities...or maybe I've been around them for too long! 😄 Anyway, the kiwis are harvested, that is now all the fruit in!

Hello, I'm on the hunt for the Golden Harvey apple. Any ideas? Full story linked below. #goldenharvey #goldenharveyapple #scionswap #heritageapples #heritagefruit #fruitsearch #variety #cultivar #apple #malusdomestica www.instagram.com/p/DRErWiOiMH...

Paula Fleming on Instagram: "Whilst wandering around a Georgian garden in Bath I found this apple, Golden Harvey also known as the brandy apple. My maiden name is Harvey so it particularly stood out t...

3 likes, 0 comments - paulafleming on November 15, 2025: "Whilst wandering around a Georgian garden in Bath I found this apple, Golden Harvey also known as the brandy apple. My maiden name is Harvey s...

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Medlars are now harvested. Let the bletting commence. After grading the tray on the left is unbletted and the fruit is still hard and has that lovely golden colour still. The tray on the right are bletted so they are a darker brown and squashy.

A few days in the life of some of our apples. These will come back to Le Manoir as apple brandy in 5 years time. A big shout out to Capreolus distillery who we have worked with for a few years now. I love seeing the outcome of so much work over the growing year.

It's not over yet!

New favourite! 😄

It doesn't look appetising I grant you, but look at the colour of the tickled pink apple pulp before pressing. 🍎 I didn't take a picture of the juice but you can imagine how red that was. 🍷

Probably the best smelling trailer in the world....ever! The Quince harvest is in. We have Champion and Portugal and it's about 220kg! Red falstaff and Granny smith apples are there too. Hiding underneath we have Christmas Pearmain, Orleans reinette and Chivers delight.

This Bramley has watercore. The flesh goes translucent and is very sweet and watery...not what you usually associate with a Bramley! We wouldn't generally want this in the UK but in places such as Japan, they market this as special. Particularly with their Fuji apples.

The Quince are absolutely stunning this year, a bit small but stunning nonetheless! A few splits but so far so good! As with everything else they're early this year and will be ready in a few days!

This week I had the pleasure of visiting Coton orchard @BonkersBusway and doing a talk for Coton garden club on growing fruit trees organically and working with nature. I can't possibly fit what I want to say in a smaller post. www.instagram.com/p/DOi8nJHiEK...

Some of our heritage fruit varieties. I love picking over these trees and seeing all the colours and differences. It's a happy picking bucket!

Varieties you can see... 🍎 Tickled pink (yes, they're a little under ripe but that's how the chefs want them.) 🍏 Blenheim orange 🍐 Beurre hardy 🍐 Gorham 🍎 Santana

Next up. Katy, the first pick of Red Windsor and Keswick codlin. That subtle pink is the most colour I've seen on the Keswick codlin.