Apricot tree to net or not to net

Stranding at the laundry trough at 6.50 am on a Saturday morning I was into my second hour of scrubbing the mold and rotting fruit stuck to the fruit fly exclusion net that had covered the communal garden apricot tree when I heard Bach's Cantata No 140 on the radio. I stopped and listened to the music- and sobbed. I have no words to convey my emotions but, dear reader, if you know the piece of music and you have ever cleaned a fruit fly exclusion net you will understand. 

The net had been soaking in bleach over night. If we had picked the apricots before they started falling into the net, perhaps the cleaning task would not have been so arduous. Anyway, the upside is that none of the fruit had fruit fly although some of the apricots were beginning to develop brown rot. The bottom of the net was full of moldy fruit! 

The harvest: After some of the apricots  been shared by the gardeners and some left on the tree- mainly because it was raining so hard we didn't have time to do a proper harvest,  I ended up with eight damaged apricots which I stewed- salvaging enough to fill half a standard jam jar- and I can't begin to tell you how good they tasted.   

Folding the net:  Once, cleaned and hung out to dry, the net had to be folded for storage in our community garden shed. My husband and I together could not manage to fold the net neatly despite laying it out on the road outside our house. Finally we managed by a mixture of folding, rolling and compression, to squeeze it into a plastic bag. If you have been considering buying one; don't. Rather than net the tree, I would prefer to pick the fruit at first blush and stew and make jam before fruit fly larvae have ruined the fruit.