Hannah Genders tastes some of the best English apples, and recommends that every garden should have an apple tree…
One of the things England is really good for is growing apples; our wet climate and mild winters are so suited to this fruit.
Many of us are beginning to appreciate again how wonderful a good English apple tastes compared with the bland imports we see all too often in the supermarket.
The lovely county of Worcestershire where we are fortunate enough to live has a great history of fruit growing and there are lots of old varieties of English apples that originate here and are still in circulation.
The Vale of Evesham has long been known for its fruit growing; the climate and soil conditions are so ideal, and in the garden projects I take on I always encourage people who are planting fruit trees to put back the old varieties from the area.
One of my favourites is Worcester Permain, a 19th century variety which is quite common but really worth growing as it is highly disease resistant and crops really well, producing small, orangey red apples that are truly delicious.
For something a bit different, the apple called Pitmaston Pineapple has conical shaped fruits of a lovely yellow colour that do taste of pineapples – this one, too, dates back to the 18th century.
Equally, some of the modern local apples that have been developed from old varieties are really good. Red Windsor is a really good alternative to an English Cox – it has all the flavour of a Cox but much more disease resistance, and is a good variety for anyone wanting to grow fruit organically.
All this local diversity is celebrated in the autumn by Apple Days put on around the country, the original idea of a charity called Common Ground.
The idea began about 15 years ago to “celebrate apples, orchards and local distinctiveness” and they have become very popular.
I can verify this by the one I attended recently at Ryton Organic Gardens, near Coventry. These gardens are open to the public all year round and represent the forefront of organic gardening in all its aspects; lovely to visit at any time but made even more special with the opportunity to wander round and try lots of wonderful apples.
These taste tests were a great hit with the visitors, as were the demonstrations and availability of experts to identify fruit that people had brought in from their own gardens.
The apple names were great, too, anything from Ten Commandments – a good one for your religious friends – to Red Devil – I’ll let you decide who you might want to give that one to!
Apple tree suppliers were also represented to provide visitors with the very tree they whose fruit they had tasted.
I would always recommend including an apple tree in your garden, and in this case size doesn’t matter because it is always possible to find the right tree for your garden.
Apple trees are grown on different root stocks according to how vigorous and how large they will eventually be – any good nursery will help you with this basic information and if space is a real issue, try growing them against a wall as either a fan-trained or espalier tree, both of which are very attractive.
In fact, for this very reason I grow fan-trained apples in the Pot Kiln garden in my new TV series (details below) and show how to plant them.
Apple trees can be bought either container-grown or bare root at this time of year. If buying them bare root, which is usually cheaper, get them into the ground as soon as possible and water well.
One last thing – if you do manage a visit to Ryton either for an apple day in the future or to wander around the gardens, do visit the restaurant for a cup of tea and make sure you try the flapjack, it’s some of the best I’ve ever had!
https://www.commonground.org.uk
https://www.gardenorganic.co.uk
Heaven’s Garden, my new series, starts on December 5. UKTV Style/Gardens is on at 10am, 4pm and 10pm every day – you’ll be sick of the sight of me!