Picking up apples!
Andrew Lea
Looks like a kind of large shrimping net but the clever? thing is it's
designed to pick up windfall apples (or tennis balls!) from the ground.
There is a 'medium' version for cider apples and golfballs.
Who'll be first to try it?
Andrew
--
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk
Mark Shirley
>
> Looks like a kind of large shrimping net but the clever? thing is it's
> designed to pick up windfall apples (or tennis balls!) from the ground.
> There is a 'medium' version for cider apples and golfballs.
>
> Who'll be first to try it?
>
> Andrew
If I could be sure it would work well in longer grass, and be durable enough
for several ton of apples, and deal with fruit sizes from small perry pears
to large Bramleys, I'd be interested...
Mark
http://rockinghamforestcider.moonfruit.com/
http://rockinghamforestcider.blogspot.com/
Melanie Wilson
getting so old that I think Mars bars should be 2d still ?
Mel
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PHILL PALMER
i like the idea of not having to bend down. it would save my knees and me having to wear carpet fitters knee pads !
not sure if it could cope with a large crop of YM apples all bunched in the grass though.
the apples on the video are very spaced out.
phill
> Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 07:41:46 +0100
> From: y...@cider.org.uk
> To: cider-w...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [Cider Workshop] Picking up apples!
Andrew Lea
> the apples on the video are very spaced out.
Hey, must be the cider, man! Dig that!
Nat West
Melanie Wilson
Andrew Lea
>
> Do people use a lot of windfalls ?
Normally, all cider apples are windfalls. That is to say, unlike dessert
apples, they are allowed to fall on the ground and gathered from there
rather than being hand picked off the tree.
There are any number of weird and wonderful systems for gathering apples
off the ground, some hand operated, some tractor mounted.
I use 2 30-something children, who are by now moderately obliging!
Melanie Wilson
Right I didn't realise that ops ! Useful to know as I'll need to ensure
where we plant the cider orchard is going to be able to be allowed to do its
windfall thing & not get eaten :) NOW the idea of the pick up device makes
far more sense (I'll get there eventually)
More dumb questions...Do they all drop off about the same time then ? Is the
windfall bit vital to the cider development ?
raybl...@ntlworld.com
> windfall bit vital to the cider development ?
We've been picking up and collecting windfalls since early August. We store them in lines on top of old pallets and racks, inspecting them and composting those which start to rot - we still have a bit to do to get the shed ready for pressing this year (and Ross Fest is in the way!).
Windfalls can drop for no-end of reasons: insect damage, physically knocked off by birds / branches, strong winds, etc. as well as ripeness - and of course not all fruit ripens at the same time.
Windfall is not crucial to cider development, as many apples were once brought down with pankers (long poles) although tree-shakers are more common today when the fruit is deemed ready for harvesting. Bletting or sweating the fruit is perhaps more crucial, depending upon the type of apple.
Ray.
Mark Shirley
> the
> windfall bit vital to the cider development ?
>
> Mel
Not dumb Mel, it's a crucial factor which differentiates good ciders from
really great ciders.
There are all kinds of techniques for determining optimum ripeness in cider
fruit, including the old-fashioned 'softness as judged by pushing a thumb
into the apple' method, testing with Iodine to determine the
starch/fermentable sugar ratio, or the most commonly used method, 'has the
fruit fallen off the tree yet?'.
In practice, the presence of a substantial number of windfalls around the
predicted ripening time is the sign to shake the rest of the fruit down for
harvest. All but the softest early cider apples are hard enough to cope with
this rough treatment, and of course, hand-picking apples for cider on a
commercial scale is simply impractical for all but the smallest producers.
In the past we have laboriously hand-picked dessert/culinary apples for
cidermaking, including use of a Lidl fruit picker. This year we aim to shake
the fruit down onto a tarpaulin in the morning, with the intention of
pressing in the afternoon before the bruising becomes too pronounced. A kind
of pre-scratting!
Cheers, Mark
http://rockinghamforestcider.moonfruit.com/
http://rockinghamforestcider.blogspot.com/
Melanie Wilson
>We've been picking up and collecting windfalls since early August. We store
>them in lines on top of old pallets and racks, inspecting them and
>composting those which start to rot
Isn't that incredibily space hungry ? I can't imagine finding enough space
to do that in the quantities you chaps seem to produce cider !
Windfalls can drop for no-end of reasons:<snip>and of course not all fruit
ripens at the same time.
So do you include them all into the cider ? I assume the early fallers are
less developed ? Less sweet ?
>Windfall is not crucial to cider development, as many apples were once
>brought down with pankers (long poles)
We are picking with long pole devices (dessert apples mostly now :)
> although tree-shakers are more common today when the fruit is deemed ready
> for harvesting.
In private orchards or commercially ?
> Bletting or sweating the fruit is perhaps more crucial, depending upon the
> type of apple.
Could you explain more on that please ?
Simon
cider were a combination of windfalls and "forced windfalls" (i.e.
using the "breeze" created by a good shake with the panking pole).
With windfalls, isn't there more of an issue in keeping out the fruit
which has been on the ground a bit too long and is getting a bit too
rotten and/or dirty (whereas with "forced windfalls" you get fresher
fruit with no/less need to wash them)?
I've always harboured thoughts of putting nets under trees, to catch
the fallers and keep them off the ground. Suspect it would be too
much trouble, but I like the mental pitcure it creates.
For panking, we often use a tarp (after picking the decent windfalls
under the tree first) to get an easy pick of clean fruit (and to avoid
missing the mischievous apples that hide in any long grass)