Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - my first early Christmas Present goes into bat

I bought myself two early Christmas presents, the first of which is the apple rack below which is now in use, albeit only temporarily.

What you see below are a couple of cooking apples but also the entire harvest from the trees in the old, lower, orchard by the river. Okay, I missed some which had fallen to the floor and started to rot but it really was a dreadful harvest. Last year my five trees produced bucket fulls. This year is a relative washout. Perhaps the vile weather around the time of the floods savaged the blossom. I do not know what happened but it is pitiful.

Anyhow, this weekend I shall use these apples, plus some from the new trees on the upper orchard I have created, to make juice in my small press I brought as an early present to myself this time a year ago. I hope to create 4 or 5 bottles but only time will tell.  At that point I can bring in the edible apples from the top orchard plus a few more cooking apples and wrap them in newspaper to leave on the rack for autumn consumption, including in the making of Christmas puddings with the plums from the plum vodka, in the last days of October.

My second early Christmas present to myself? All will be revealed this weekend.