Harvest time

I finished my last post, by speculating that the harvest might be early and so it turned out.  We began on August 24th - a day later than planned owing to the writer being  caught out 'up a creek' (actually the river Roach on the East coast of Essex), not without a paddle but with wind and tide against us. But that is another story.

Some growers had begun picking their cobnuts ten days earlier but late August suited us fine.  I decided, with the help of willing volunteers to take care of the young bloc - some 200 trees roughly ten years old, with the main bloc going to Hurstwood Farm, the makers of Kentish Cobnut Oil ( www.cobnutoil.co.uk ).

cobnuts crated up

On 9th September 32 sharp-eyed pickers and the farm manager descended on the plat and stripped the golden clusters from the trees, leaving them bare in two and a half days.

two pickers to each row of nut trees

ready for loading

In fact the nuts were so advanced this year that a good shake of the trees brought most of them to the ground where they were quickly collected up.

ground hog?

The nuts were of good quality

passing inspection

The crates were loaded onto a trailer to be trundled back to the farm.

ready to roll

The main bloc had been taken care of but there remained plenty to do to harvest and market the young bloc. The plan was for these to be  sold 'by donation' to visitors at Ightham Mote where garden staff had set up a stall by the entrance to the property. So picking continued.

a dedicated nutter

Then the nuts were bagged up and weighed.

to be sold by the bag

calibrating the scales

A final effort was needed and, as the month progressed, the weather stayed dry and the nuts were falling off the trees it was a question of scrabbling around in the grass to retrieve them before the squirrels did.

'Got to get them all!'

The Apple and Orchard Day fairs took place in the garden of Ightham Mote on the last weekend of September and we were able to provide plenty of nuts for the cobnut stand..

Supermarket trays put to use

'Will we get any customers?'

The punters arrive

If any trees remained unpicked at the end of the month the will to carry on had evaporated and the squirrels were welcome to help themselves.  So ended the harvest season, in good time as October brought wind, rain and the arrival of autumn.