For the team at The Wild Rabbit, August is the time that we look ahead to the arrival of orchard fruit after seven months of waiting and caring for our trees. To find out more about the highs and lows of orcharding and working with these ingredients, we took a walk through Daylesford’s organic market garden with its Head, Jez Taylor, and our Executive Chef, Sam.

Within the orchard season there are several micro-seasons, with a new variety of apple, plum or pear reaching its peak every couple of weeks. For Jez, the abundance of local fruit is significant: “in a time of food insecurity, we should be celebrating the best of what is available on our doorstep”. Sam seems to agree, mentioning that we shouldn’t be afraid to make the most of the available fruit. “Working with seasonal ingredients is all about capitalising on the availability of ingredients in the moment, even if that means using them to create preserves or oils to use throughout the year” he says. “We are still using wild garlic oil to season dishes [four months after harvesting] for example”.

Indeed, we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Jez tells us that recent challenges from pests and the changing climate have had an impact: “many newer-planted trees haven’t borne fruit, but older groups with access to deep, extensive root networks have been more resilient”. This is perhaps why traditional orchards have declined by almost 90% since the ‘50s. “Modern day orcharding is bringing everything undercover to simplify harvesting in controlled environments”, says Jez.

It feels more of a privilege therefore to be wandering outside through the market garden’s trees, some already bursting with early plums which Jez and Sam can’t resist sampling. As we walk, they give us a summary of each of the fruits we can expect to appear here (and on the menu) over the next few months.

APPLES

 JT: Growing fruit for eating is actually quite specialist, and very few people are interested in organic apple growing in particular. We grow fruit both for eating and for juicing – cider is a good last resort for anyone with fruit going to waste from apple trees if you can find a local juicer. There is also an opportunity to make a natural sweetener from apples, which is much better for the climate than cultivating sugar beet.

SB: We’ll be featuring early season Discovery apples on the menu this month – these are grown in the agroforestry project on the farm, where fruit trees are planted within the chicken fields to offer the birds shade and the occasional dropped fruit to nibble.

PEARS

 JT: Pears can be tricky for first time growers as they ripen off the tree and need to be stored just above zero degrees, which generally requires a cold store. The trees also need shelter which makes it hard to grow them here in the market garden – our pears are grown up on the Estate.

SB: There is a good spread of varieties and ripening periods for pears which means different types can appear on the menu throughout the season. Late August into September is best for Williams, followed by conference and then comice and concorde in October and November.

PLUMS

JT: The market garden is full of plums right now, and one of the important things to know is how to deal with gluts. Their high pectin content means that plums are not great juicers but they make excellent jams and chutneys; you can also create dried chews and even plum brandy.

SB: Plums feature in both savoury and sweet dishes on our menu, lending themselves well to being used in creative ways. We have used the Japanese umeboshi technique to ferment and pickle plums from last year, creating a slightly salty umami paste to serve alongside pork and freshly pickled plums from this season. Oil made from the plum kernels is served with our greengage dessert – its wonderful marzipan notes complement the sweet, honeyed greengage flavours.

We are celebrating with our annual orchard supper club, a three-month preview menu showcasing the best of British tree fruit.