Mast

[sime42]

I guess other people have noticed that it's a massive Mast Year. Round here the Oaks and Horse Chestnuts are absolutely loaded. (Well, most are on the ground now. Or in our house, courtesy of my son.) Same with everything else, trees and shrubs that bear fruit/nuts/seeds. Fruit trees have all had a bumper crop. They're all earlier than normal also. Looking forward to a plentiful Chestnut harvest in a few weeks hopefully.

 

Anyone got any better photos? I took these rather underwhelming ones on a short walk around this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

[Stubby]

Yep . 🙂

[Mick Dempsey]

Lots and lots of everything.

[Tree monkey 1682]

14 hours ago, sime42 said:

I guess other people have noticed that it's a massive Mast Year. Round here the Oaks and Horse Chestnuts are absolutely loaded. (Well, most are on the ground now. Or in our house, courtesy of my son.) Same with everything else, trees and shrubs that bear fruit/nuts/seeds. Fruit trees have all had a bumper crop. They're all earlier than normal also. Looking forward to a plentiful Chestnut harvest in a few weeks hopefully.

 

Anyone got any better photos? I took these rather underwhelming ones on a short walk around this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

Ive never seen so many apples, pears ,damsons speaking of which our chest freezers full of them, even sold 15lb of them and at the final point gave some away ,along with leaving some for the wildlife 

[green heart]

Yep, a bumper crop for all tree fruits here in the NW  -though I was expecting less/smaller fruit, given the very dry summer period .

Sweet Chestnuts gathered this week. 

Apple store and new freezer are chocca block.

Evidevidently there was sufficient winter rainfall to make no difference to yields. 

Has anyone here ever experimented with making Calvados/distilling cider ?

Just asking for a friend, obviously...

🤔

[Alan Smith]

I've made cider for about 10 years now, about 200-250 litres. I've thought about trying distilling, especially now that regulations are more relaxed but quite honestly I have too many hobbies as it is.  An alternative to distilling is freezing the cider and decanting the alcohol which of course does not freeze and separates out. The Canadians call this Apple Jack I think. Again, never tried it.

[trigger_andy]

59 minutes ago, Alan Smith said:

I've made cider for about 10 years now, about 200-250 litres. I've thought about trying distilling, especially now that regulations are more relaxed but quite honestly I have too many hobbies as it is.  An alternative to distilling is freezing the cider and decanting the alcohol which of course does not freeze and separates out. The Canadians call this Apple Jack I think. Again, never tried it.

In what regard has the distilling regulations been relaxed?

[sime42]

1 hour ago, green heart said:

Yep, a bumper crop for all tree fruits here in the NW  -though I was expecting less/smaller fruit, given the very dry summer period .

Sweet Chestnuts gathered this week. 

Apple store and new freezer are chocca block.

Evidevidently there was sufficient winter rainfall to make no difference to yields. 

Has anyone here ever experimented with making Calvados/distilling cider ?

Just asking for a friend, obviously...

🤔

 

Yes, I was very pleasantly surprised by the size of all the fruit, given the draught we had over the summer. The only exception was the Damsons, they were noticeably small than normal. 

 

I used to make a fair bit of cider, never thought to go to the next level. Nice idea. 

[Mark Bolam]

Blackberries were crazy early this year in Kent.

Sloes and Damsons fruited really well.

 

Local vineyards started picking mid September, which is early.

 

Acorn/conker crop is normal.

 

Sweet chestnuts keeping their powder dry.

 

 

’Mast year’ talk is generally bollocks.

We all wish for a cold, dry winter and a white Christmas, but it will invariably start to piss down in a couple of weeks and not stop till March.

[sime42]

What's the normal Mast Year talk - that it predicts a harsh winter? Probably bollox if so, I agree. More likely that a mast year is just a reflection of a harsh summer, i.e. too hot and dry. Trees feel threatened so go all out to produce the next generation. Can't blame them, what would we want on our death beds, other than a last cigarette?