New Years Resolutions are one of my favourite things to do, it might feel cliched and like 90% of them don't stick each year but that 10% that does could just turn out to be the magic you need in your life. I prefer to think about it as Intentions and Goal setting. What am I hoping to get out of this year. so while January is a funny old month, typically its cold, wet and pretty miserable outside everyone is exhausted from the holiday period of festivities and is in full hibernation mode it gives you that time to take stock, reflect and set yourself up for the year to come!
Here at The Sussex Pantry HQ (i.e. Holly's kitchen table) January is about planning and prepping to make sure we can meet those goals, including starting to prune the apple and pear trees and tidying up the orchard.
The approach to pruning apple and pear trees is fairly basic. Look for any branches that are damaged, dead or rubbing together and removed them. Then methodically starting at the trunk move along each and every branch checking for new growth and snip it off. The new growth is easy to spot as it is shinier, flexible and generally a deeper shade of red or brown. Those stems wont product fruit and take a huge amount of energy from the tree. cutting them all back will mean the tree will be able to put al of its energy into fruit.
We have a little over 30 trees to take care and while the cherry, damson and plum trees will stay untouched until mid summer the apples and pears really appreciate a haircut in the dormant months. When they wake up in March they will feel refreshed and ready to take on the world :) by way of producing the maximum possible blossom and therefore fruit. And of course with our bees nestled amongst the trees when they also wake up they will be delighted to feast on all of that pollen and start producing that precious liquid gold Honey.
The bees right now are hibernating but there are still things to do, check out our tiktok account for regular bee jobs and updates.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hollycadc?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Happy New Year and hope to be sending out some yummies to you soon!