An Asturian Apple Harvest

Apples are to Asturias as grapes are to La Rioja.

As harvest gets underway here in the ‘Comarca de la Sidra’ (the cider ‘shire’) the orchards that densely carpet vast swathes of hillside are shaded under a heavy canopy of apple-laden branches.

The apples are plentiful this year (they come in two year cycles – a year of plenty followed by a year of scarcity) but they are smaller than usual, a result of the extreme and unusual drought that we have suffered this summer.

The harvest is performed as if by stealth. No whirring of machinery, not even a chugging tractor. Sacks, filled to the brim, silently appear alongside gates. There they sit to await collection by the lorries the cider factories will send. They will be weighed in place at the side of the road and the farmer will be paid per kilo. Not all the apples will be surrendered to the commercial cider makers, however. A certain quantity will be retained for pressing at home. No self-respecting Asturian farmer would be without a ‘llagar’ where they make and store their ‘sidra casera’ (home-made cider).

If you look closely at the photo above, however, you will just make out a ‘Cars’ backpack hastily flung on the ground alongside the sacks of apples. This will give you an indication that this particular afternoon’s apple picking was somewhat less on the silent and stealthy side and more tending towards the boisterous and ebullient.

Yes, yet again, our walk home from the school bus stop diverted off into an afternoon of foraging and frolicking in the fields.

You can tell just by looking that this boy was a huge advantage to the picking team.

Luckily, in addition to Jack and his friend, his friend’s father, aunty and granny were the prime pickers. A real family affair. Oh, and of course a stick was deployed, that most simple but effective of Asturian tools.

A truly Asturian apple harvest.

Linking up to Country Kids at Coombe Mill. Pop over to check out some more outdoors family fun www. Coombemill.com/blog