Windfall

There was an apple tree in the garden of the house where I lived in Oxford. It produced more apples than I knew what to do with and it's something I miss at this time of year, when the English apple season is in full swing. I'm kicking myself now for buying apples to make chutney: for the last few weeks, I have been cycling past trees laden with apples ripe for the picking.

Don't ask me how I didn't notice them until now: there were apples all over the grass verge, overflowing onto the road itself. Today I stopped to look more closely and noticed that the windfall was not too badly damaged, so I picked up as many as I could carry. There are three different varieties, all sweet eating apples rather than cookers.

Leith's Baking Bible has recipes for twelve different apple cakes, and some of tonight's haul have already been turned into an apple sauce cake to take into the office tomorrow. Most of the rest are destined for chutney or apple jelly. There are plenty more where these came from, so I might get to try some of the other Leith's recipes before the season is out.