Out & About October 2017

the big apple

HILARY SCOTT peels away the skin and tells you all you need to know about local apples and where to go to taste them. Plus what’s a cooker and what’s an eater

T he mellow fruitfulness in John Keats’ Ode to Autumn most certainly included apples. And now is harvest time, when we should be making the most of British varieties that fall straight from the tree and virtually straight to your plate. Mostly we eat foreign apples. Only a third of the apples eaten in the UK each year are grown here; the others are imported from as far away as New Zealand and Chile and have to be transported to the UK by sea. Untreated, they would ripen too far and lose nutrients, as well as their crunch. So apples are often hot waxed among other processes, like being washed with chlorine, then stored in refrigerated units. Fruit to be sold from November to January is chilled to 0°C, but for longer-term, the oxygen is lowered and the apples are literally put to sleep for six months. And while this may mean we can eat apples all year round, it does have an effect on taste. So try sourcing your apples from specialist growers. Growing Newbury Green have five orchard sites – Barn Crescent, City Rec, Digby Road, Sayers Close, Greenham and Orchardene. In Barn Crescent 10 of the 17 trees are local Berkshire varieties and can include: Breedon Pippin – raised around 1801 by the Rev Symonds Breedon in Pangbourne. The trees are small and well-suited for dwarf training in small gardens. The apples are small and flat, looking slightly square. When ripe, the skin is a dull yellow tinted with red-orange. Charlie Ross – raised by Charles Ross who was the head gardener at Welford Park from 1860 until 1908. He crossed the Peasgood’s Nonsuch and Cox’s Orange Pippin. Now used as a dual-purpose apple – delicious raw and holds it shape when cooked. It is slightly aromatic, very sweet and juicy with a firm texture. Will keep until December if picked in September. Granny Shan – a cooker found in a Newbury garden. The original variety name is now

lost, as it cannot be readily identified from any similar apples in national collections. Rediscovered in the family garden by Shannon Carr and bred by Bernwode Nursuries in Buckinghamshire, who have adopted the name given by her daughter – Granny Shan. The fruit is distinctively shaped, which it retains when cooked lightly, but will purée if left to cook longer. It has a full flavour.

Blenheim Orange

At the orchards you can also find: Blenheim Orange – the original tree was found in Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire, in about 1740 by a worker call Kempster and was originally called Kempster’s Pippin until 1804. A classic English apple, it is suitable for eating and cooking and has a dry, nutty flavour. It is mainly yellow/orange in colour, with red flushes and a hint of russet.

Miller’s Seedling

Miller’s Seedling – raised by James Miller in 1848 at Speen Nursery, Newbury. Very decorative fruit, with a creamy skin flushed coral pink, and sweet, crisp, juicy flesh. An early dessert. Planted at the Digby Road orchard only a few hundred metres from its ‘home’ in Speen.

Bountiful

Bountiful – a modern cooker bred in 1964 in Kent. It has creamy-white flesh tinged with yellow and is sweet enough not to need any sugar added when cooked. Bramley’s Seedling – the classic English cooking apple, the Bramley was raised in a cottage in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, between 1809 and 1813. The cottage was bought by a Matthew Bramley and when the

Winston

fruit was first exhibited in 1876 it was named after him. The tree is a vigorous grower and the fruits have good flavour

Winston – raised at Welford Park, it was originally called Winter King in 1935 and renamed Winston in 1944. A cross between a Cox’s Orange Pippin and Worcester Pearmain, it has medium sized fruit boldly streaked with red over green. Flesh is crisp, pale and sweet with the flavour of a Cox. Good to store until spring.

and plenty of juice. Pick in mid-October, the fruit stores from November until March.

APPLEY FACTS

Apples contain no fat, sodium or cholesterol and are a good source of fibre. Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit. Apples are a member of the rose family.

28