I’m a big fan of Mahmood Al-Yousif’s blog from Bahrain. Occasionally he’ll throw in a little gardening info among the campaigning. Check out, for example, the dates in Mahmood’s back yard. So, with that in mind, I hope you’ll forgive a little off topic information from my own back yard.

When we took over the abandoned orchard that is now our garden, some seven years ago, we tried to figure out what kind of apples we had. With the help of a reference book, we decided they were Discovery. Although we initially toyed with all kinds of self sufficient plans, these River Cottage intentions amounted to little more than occasionally picking some and giving them to friends (or horses).

Some years our apple trees have dropped their fruit whilst we were on holiday, or were working, other years we’ve laboured to collect a couple of carrier bags’ worth. One year I made chutney that was so unspeakably vile it ended up being given to people as Christmas presents (if you’ve still got some – sorry).

Finally, this year, we – okay, my wife – picked enough to take along to the local apple press, where they will crush, pasteurise and bottle up your very own apple juice and sell it back to you for a very reasonable price. Except they weren’t Discovery. The guy at the apple press informed us that they were Tydeman’s Early Worcester, produced by a Mr Tydeman in nearby Malling in 1929 by crossing Worcester Pearmain and Red McIntosh. So this year we will have 70 litres of single varietal apple juice from our unsprayed (ok, uncared for) and elderly apple trees.

The other apple beneficiaries this year have been Tim’s Old Spots, who have troughed down on nightly barrowfuls of windfalls. It’s a good life as a free range pig. Except the last bit.