A Crab Apple, With Love

Mother's Day always seems to sneak up and catch me unawares, one way or another. Last year as Mother's Day arrived, so did seven and a half goslings that I'd been incubating, who decided to hatch out of their eggs several days ahead of schedule, much to my surprise and delight. So caught up was I with becoming 'Mother Goose' to these gorgeous yellow fluff balls who totally captured my attention, that I have no recollection of whether I actually remembered to send my own mum a card and a present to make her day.

So in order to make up for my ineptness last year, I've been thinking long and hard about what to get my mum for Mother's Day this year. Mum - if you're reading this, look away now! Because my mum lives at the opposite end of the country from me, a good 350 odd miles away, the easy option would have been to send her a mail order bunch of flowers. After all, who doesn't love a bunch of gorgeous flowers? Well, me and my newly developed eco-conscience, that's who.

Since I moved to Newhouse Farm I've been learning a huge amount about the questionable ethics and ingredients behind many of the household products we take for granted, mail order flowers included. 'Locally grown' and 'seasonal' are terms that have become mainstream and accepted when it comes the to fruit and vegetables, but it seems to me that the same logic hasn't been transferred to cut flowers. I never used to think twice about ordering a big bunch of cut flowers to send to my mum as a birthday or Mother's day treat, but I never once considered where the flowers were grown and whether or not they were in season.

Now I've discovered that lots of mail order cut flowers are seriously bad news, as many of them are grown overseas in hot houses that use up a lot of fossil fuels to heat the flowers and transport them to the UK. What's even worse is that some flower producers, in order to produce the perfect blooms, use up a huge amount of water from the surrounding area, meaning that the local population has to pay extra just to get enough water to drink. So without wanting to get too doom-and-gloomy, perhaps you can now understand why I knew I couldn't possibly send my mum the usual bunch of flowers for Mother's Day, as my land girl 'green' credentials simply wouldn't allow it.

Instead I've decided to send my mum an alternative Mother's Day gift. Mum - if you're still reading this, you really must look away now! A little while ago I stumbled across a brilliant little company called Tree2MyDoor, who send UK grown trees through the post as an alternative to cut flowers. As my mum is about to move into a new house with an unestablished garden, I thought a growing tree gift would be a much more appreciated than flowers.  After all, a bunch of flowers would only last for a few days, whereas a tree will hopefully last for years and years to come.

The tree I opted for was a Crab Apple tree, which has a beautiful blossom and after a few years will bear lots of bitter little fruits that can be made into jelly or wine. I was intrigued to discover that the crab apple was also known as the 'Tree of Love' by the Ancient Celts. Apparently many beliefs stem surround the humble crab apple, mostly to do with love and marriage partners. One example is that if you throw the pips into the fire whilst saying the name of your true love, if the pip explodes the love is true. Admittedly, I'm choosing to interpret the whole 'tree of love' thing as a more mother / daughter type of love, so hopefully the Ancient Celts won't disapprove.

Happy Mother's Day mum! I hope you like your tree!