Plate expectations as home's plot bursting with fruit and vegetables

APPLES GALORE AS GLUT OF PRODUCE PROVIDES HEARTY FARE FOR RESIDENTS

- By TELEGRAPH REPORTER

RESIDENTS at the city’s oldest care home have been living the good life after the summer's warm sunshine produced a bumper apple crop along with one of its best ever seasons for fruit, veg and flowers.

Orchards across the UK have seen some of their best crops this year after ideal conditions created by 2024's wet weather followed by the UK’s warmest summer on record and some helpful late season rain.

This year’s apple crop at Brookfields Private Nursing Home, on Burton Road, has followed the national trend with months of tasty fruit - resulting in delicious treats for the dinner table.

At Brookfields, which provides home-from-home residential care for around 30 residents, seven varieties of apple are grown on espaliers, which this year have produced a constant supply of fruit from August to October.

Brookfields chef Simon Pleydell has been busy in the kitchen using up the apples by making crumbles, puddings, pies and strudel.

Simon, who has worked as a chef for many years including catering for smart private dining clients in London, said it was very important for elderly residents to enjoy their food.