Heritage harvest

Marcus and Andy, who founded the Mid-shires Orchard Group, are the latest in a growing band of people around the county who have come to appreciate that the heritage of the apple needs preserving.

Oxfordshire had 1,533 acres of apple orchards in 1901 but many of these have disappeared. Some made way for new housing long ago and others were grubbed up in the mid-1990s when the EU encouraged growers by giving them a subsidy of two to three thousand pounds per acre to remove young apple trees between the ages of five and 20 years.

I think they wanted us to eat French-grown Golden Delicious and nothing else, despite the fact that England boasts up to 9,000 varieties. China is now the world’s largest producer of apples, by the way.

Alarmed by the number of disappearing fruit trees, in 1994 a group of devotees planted the Wolvercote Community Orchard, which now contains more than 20 Oxfordshire varieties and trees with Oxfordshire links.

These include Oxford Sunset, Oxford Yeoman, Eynsham Dumpling and Blenheim Orange. One Eynsham grower, WF Wastie, raised many different varieties and the Wolvercote orchard has Wastie’s Peggy’s Pride, Sergeant Peggy, Jennifer Wastie and Red Army. All these varieties are available from the the Heritage Tree Nursery)  Each January, the Wolvercote trees are enthusiastically wassailed to encourage the next crop, amid much jollity.

I once did a gardening talk on the same evening in Wolvercote. The cider, singing and firelight were much more of an attraction than my talk. Even our esteemed editor (who was instrumental is the establishment of the orchard) chose the cider!

You don’t need a lot of room to accommodate an apple tree or two and you will encourage lots of wildlife, for an apple tree is almost as good a refuge as an English oak.

The blossom sustains pollinators, the crevices in the trunk and woody branches shelter insect life and the fallen fruit is appreciated by birds, butterflies and many small mammals — including badgers, hares, rabbits and hedgehogs.

Populations of green woodpeckers, greater horseshoe bats, spotted fly catchers, goldfinches, blue tits, hedge sparrows and goldcrests may well increase. If mistletoe hangs from the branches, the berries may attract blackcaps and other birds as well.  You will also be planting a bit of history and, who knows, your apple tree might just be a direct descendent from those originally planted by the Romans who are credited with introducing apples into Britain.

They specialised in grafting, a skill that remained widespread until the First World War. Every community had its small group of grafters and many villages have distinct apple varieties that have been successful for centuries. Hook Norton has an upright, handsome cooker of large proportions. Nobody bought an apple tree in those days, scion wood was passed over the garden gate.  A famous fruit-growing manual was written by  an Oxford academic called Francis Drope (1629-1671) of Magdalen College. It was used in orchards owned by Lord Wenman of Brackley in Northamptonshire somewhere close to St Peter1s church. The old english word orchard is derived from Œort-yeard1  thought to mean an enclosed yard, and fruit trees were originally planted to provide a vital supply of apples and pears. These could be eaten, cooked, stored or made into cider and perry. Different varieties were grown for each use.

Perhaps the most famous Oxfordshire apple is ŒBlenheim Orange1 syn. ŒBlenheim Pippin1(1740). The original seedling was found growing against the boundary wall of Blenheim Park by a local man called Kempster. He planted it in his garden where it is said that “thousands thronged from all parts to gaze on its ruddy, ripening orange burden”. It became known as ŒKempster’s Pippin1 until a Worcestershire nurseryman called Biggs obtained permission from the Duke of Marlborough to market the variety as ŒBlenheim Orange1. It won further fame after winning the Banksian Silver Medal in 1820 and was widely grown in the UK until the 1930’s. Although no longer grown commercially on any significant scale it remains a favourite garden variety.

The large, flat round fruit has an orange-red flush and stripes over greenish yellow skin. The creamy white flesh has a crumbly texture and a distinctive nutty flavour and it cooks to a stiff puree. This very vigorous triploid variety is capable of producing large strong limbed trees and I1ve planted one grafted onto dwarfing stock. Like many old apples it1s a shy cropper when young. But cropping improves with age although it does tend to be biennial - fruiting every other year.  Less famous are the `North Aston Russet1 and the ŒDeddington Pippin1. But Marcus Roberts and Andy Howard are going to make sure these heritage apples are preserved for the future.    The group can identify old apples, offer help and advice about varieties suitable for your district and will take scion wood to save old trees on their last legs.  Ten pounds a year membership will allow you into the National Trust’s Stowe Landscape Gardens (the location of the group’s orchard) for free on any of their regular orchard days. You can also get reductions on grafting and pruning courses. Container-grown local varieties can be bought from ANDY AND MARCUS nursery (The Heritage Fruit Tree Company) or from Buckingham Nurseries. The M.S.O.G. also hold a fascinating collection of books on heritage fruit which members can access on certain days.  They are in desperate need of more land to plant another orchard dedicated to conserving old varieties from the four counties, so if anyone can help please let them know.

Heritage Fruit Tree Company and M.S.O.G contact Andy Howard on 01295 810516 or Marcus Roberts on 01295 712272.