Peashoot salad

Peashoot salad

English Apples

English Apples

The English apple season is here at last so what better time to celebrate the incredible diversity and exotic origins of this humble fruit. The birthplace of the dessert apple is believed to be the forests of the Tien Shan Mountains where China, Kazahstan and Krygyzstan meet.  From here seeds were spread by mammals and birds west towards the Fertile Crescent where they were cultivated by the Persians and the Romans, eventually finding their way to these shores when the Roman Empire spread to Britain.

The apple has amazing genetic diversity and the pips of one variety will grow into trees bearing different fruit from their parents. This has led to hundreds of varieties being developed over the years, some by design, others by luck.  However to preserve the identity of a particular variety it is necessary to propagate trees by grafting onto rootstock.  Commercial growers now use dwarf rootstocks which allow them to stock at higher densities – around 1000 trees per acre compared to 50 trees in old orchards.

The first apples start to ripen in August, with varieties such as Discovery, Worcester Pearmain and Katy best eaten straight off the tree. Later ripening varieties have better storage qualities so it is possible to eat English fruit all the way through the autumn and winter.  The height of the season is October when there are Apple Days all over the country to celebrate.

At Harbour & Jones many of our English apples come from Kent and in particular from Sandys Dawes who supplies greengrocer 4 Degrees C with apples, pears, cherries and soft fruit.  Sandys farm has been in his family for at least 300 years although the fruit is a relative newcomer with orchards being planted in the 1960s.  The apples came first and are still the most important crop today, testament to the enduring appeal of this wonderful home-grown fruit.

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