Actinobacteria are a common group of mostly aerobic bacteria that occur in both soil and water (fresh and sea). In the soil they include some of the most common forms of soil life and play a vital role in the decomposition of organic matter, e [...]

Ants are a great example of the type of soil arthropods we featured a few weeks ago—the shredders—but they are so common, and generate so many questions, that they deserve their own article. Read article in: Spring Week 7.

There are several different types of aphid that are pests on fruit trees, but the three you’re most likely to come across are black cherry aphid, green peach aphid, and woolly aphid on apples. What they have in common is their life cycle, allo [...]

This is a great thing to do with ageing apples that are maybe starting to go a bit greasy or spotty. So, enjoy the last of the cold nights ahead with these scrumptious little filling treats before spring brings longer and warmer evenings that [...]

In this article we bring you a selection of recipes that use bottled apples. We preserve sliced apples in water (not syrup), so they come out like stewed apples in unsweetened juice. If you’ve bottled apples in sweet syrup, you can still use t [...]

We have many regular customers who buy apricots from us each year to make apricot dumplings. There seem to be many variations of this recipe, from various parts of Europe, some with soft cheese in the pastry, some with potato, some coated in b [...]

There are endless variations on apricot jam, even sugar-free versions—here’s three of our favourites from our customers! Get the recipes in Summer - Week 10

Many thanks to Brunetta, one of our dear long-standing customers, who gave us a private dumpling workshop. We’ve been hearing about these amazing dumplings for years from many of our customers, particularly those with European heritage. Seeing [...]

One of the biggest challenges when picking any fruit, is choosing the right stage of ripeness. This will depend to some extent on what you plan to do with it and how long you want it to last off the tree, but there are a few guiding principles [...]

For young trees, while you’re getting them established into a vase shape (which is what we recommend, unless you have a reason for growing a different shaped tree) the answer is yes. During the establishment phase (the first 1-3 years after yo [...]

There are three main grafting techniques we use in winter— whip tongue, cleft, and bark grafting. Bark grafting is used when grafting onto rootstocks or branches that are larger than about 30 mm in diameter, and is a good way to change a whole [...]

Did you know that about one-third of the food that’s produced worldwide is wasted? Shocked? We were, when we discovered the facts behind the massive problem of global food waste. In this article we give you some great tips on how to make the m [...]