The hot, dry summer was ideal for top quality apples as the sunshine produced high sugar levels and rapid cell development. As harvest progresses, heavy yields of high quality apples have become the story of 2013, while pear yields have been very disappointing. One very successful variety this year has been the traditional Egremont Russet, growing large and uniformly russeted fruit for the supermarket trade.

The picture shows one of our picking teams nearing the end of a hard day Russet picking.

To cope with the challenge of a busy harvest, we have invested in more new tractors and a Kramer 350 rough-terrain forklift to unload the picking trains. Both are seen at work in one of our best Bramley orchards.