Our mature Bramley apple tree would like to be enormous, but has been pruned every year to produce fruit instead. I knew the total number it produces each year was quite large, so this year I’ve been counting . . .
Bramley apples on our tree
Fall to the ground occasionally.
How many drop? I’ve often wondered –
I thought it must be several hundred . . .
Not every windfall can be used:
Some are rotten, some are bruised.
Others drop when far too small,
But they’re included in my haul.
From June for several months they fall,
And when they do, I count them all.
Peaking with the great June Drop,
The tree produces quite a crop.
I use a spreadsheet by Excel
To show the rate at which they fell.
From mid-July, the drop-rate slows:
Two dozenish per week, it shows.
Until, at last, there are no more . . .
And here it is, the final score:
Eleven hundred plus, we had
(All the apples, good and bad),
Of which about a third we’ll use
(Once we’ve cut out each bash and bruise)
To nourish friends and family.
So thank you, Bramley apple tree!
See also June drop