Edible Wild Fruits – a definitive guide please?

Where can I find a website (or book) that is a definitive guide to distinguishing wild fruit you can eat from stuff you should not eat.

I am particularly interested in plums, sloes etc as where I live I pass a number of trees which have plum like looking fruit on them but I would like to formally identify it before I risk all!

Tony Fairhall

Orchard Advice Needed Please?

We have just purchased 2 hectares of North Shropshire grass land and wish to plant 1 hectare of apple trees and have been looking at a mixed bag of culinary, dessert and cider apples, expecting to be able to sell to the cider market.

We would like trees that are around 10-12 ft and are also conscious that we need to make sure that our trees will pollinate either themselves or each other.

We are not farmers and have very little (no) experience, and are very aware that we could get this horribly wrong, and any advice regarding varieties, rootstock, spacing and suppliers would be very much appreciated.

Ian and Philomena Smith

Red Spider Mite Problem and a Pruning Question

I have a serious red spider mite problem in polytunnels containing about 4000 maiden fruit trees. Has anyone experience using sulphur vapourizers and can anyone recommend a systemic acaricide ?

And a further question: why do commercial apple growers use the replacement method of pruning?

Ian Sturrock

Growing Apples in Southern California

Bramley's Seedling grown in California

Kevin Hauser, a pioneer in growing apples in a warm climate – Riverside, near Los Angeles – recounted his experiences on our main web-site some time ago. Many of the varieties he grows originated in England; he even grows Bramley’s Seedling! Click  here to read his article. Now he  brings us up-to-date with the situation  this year.

It has  been over 40 degrees C here in Southern California all last week (43 on Monday) and there is a fine snow of ashes raining down from the wildfires burning in the foothills. I am walking down my apple tree row sampling failures; Lord Lamborne – cracked and split, Ashmead’s Kernel – wrinkled and rubbery, Pitmaston Pineapple- sweet, dense, a bit dry, pretty bland. I picked up a Bramley that had been sitting on the ground all day in the brutal sun, and WOW! Crisp, juicy, very tart and very sweet, with citrus overtones – definitely something going on here.

The Bramleys were starting to fall, so we picked the rest of them last evening and since it was way too hot to bake a pie, we made apple sauce from the dozen or so apples we ended up with this year.  I was surprised how quickly they fell apart when cooking, much more so than the Rome Beauty we are accustomed to.  The applesauce was quite tart, even after adding copious amounts of sugar and cinnamon.  My wife liked it only lightly sweetened, but I could not stand it that way and had to dress it up more.  We had it with whipped cream. Everyone agreed that we liked the brisk taste, very refreshing on a late summer evening.  Store-bought applesauce seems insipid and tasteless compared to Bramley.  About the only apple we have with the same tartness is Lady Williams, which will not ripen until four months from now in February.

In February of 2006 when I first planted our Bramley tree it was a 1 cm bench graft on M7 rootstock.  It grew like a rocket the first year, getting as thick as a shovel handle by October.  This greatly alarmed me, as I had visions of it overtaking our house in a few years; but in the ensuing years it has slowed down considerably. I speculate that our lack of chill greatly stunts its growth, since it only requires moderate summer pruning to keep it small enough to pick without a ladder.

Kevin Hauser

Ode to the Bramley

‘Near the Minster in Southwell, how it happened’s a puzzle,
Little Mary Ann created a new variety.
In the shade of her garden after frost made it harden,
She planted a pip from a friend’s apple tree.

Oh, sing of the Apple, oh sing of the Apple, what sort are you going to be?
Oh, sing of the Apple, oh sing of the Apple, what is to become of thee?

………..

Two hundred years later, no fame could be greater
Than the flavour of those apples from Mary Ann’s tree,
In pies they’re eponymous, in kitchens synonymous
With the culinary heights of our great history

So sing of the Bramley, oh sing of the Bramley, as loud as loud can be,
Oh sing of the Bramley, oh sing of the Bramley, we are proud to honour thee!’

Words: John Starkey
Music:  Simon Freeman

These are the first and last of the four verses of the ‘Bi-Centenary Song of the Bramley Apple’, written by Sir John Starkey as part of this year’s celebrations marking the 200th birthday of our best loved  ‘cooker’.

Bramley’s remarkable history began in around 1809, when Mary Anne Brailsford planted a few apple pips in a pot. One of these grew into a vigorous sapling which was planted in the family garden in Church Street, in the market town of Southwell, near Nottingham. The tree had been cropping for some years when in around 1857 it caught the eye of Henry Merryweather, who recognised a potential winner for his fledgling nursery business. By this time the cottage and the tree were owned by Matthew Bramley, a butcher in the town. He gave graftwood to Merryweather and his name to the new apple; Merryweather began selling grafted trees in 1862. By the turn of the century Bramley trees were widely planted in commercial orchards, helping to establish the modern British fruit industry and Bramley continues to play an important role in today’s markets. That Bramley’s Seedling is for sale on our supermarket shelves is in many ways more remarkable than the longevity of the mother tree, which continues to grow and crop in the Southwell garden. Bramley is a Victorian culinary apple and thus much too sharp to eat fresh with pleasure. Yet, despite our rumoured disinclination to cook, Bramley finds a market all year round. Bramley has the highest level of acidity of any of the hundreds of culinary apples that were once grown all over the country, and this is its great virtue. Not only did it pass the Victorian tests for a good ‘cooker’  with honours – making excellent apple sauce, baked apples and pies  and never needing the help of extra lemon juice to compensate for fading acidity – but its brisk, intensely fruity taste comes zinging through regardless of how much sugar and spices a recipe calls for, or what mass production abuses it may suffer. Being a late keeper it has suited modern storage and marketing requirements, which can now deliver Bramleys every month of the year as sharp as when first picked.

The Bramley Ode received its first public performance last week when Sir John and Roger Merryweather, great grandson of Henry, and High Sheriff of Nottingham, sang it under the branches of the original Bramley tree; Sir John is a nearby fruit farmer who specialises in producing Bramleys. Their audience was a group of some 35 fruit amateur fruit growers from Belgium, together with half dozen English enthusiasts, who in the morning had visited the gardens of Adrian Baggaley to see how he produces so many prize winning exhibits; most recently scooping eight firsts at the RHS Tatton Park Show. In the afternoon we had come across to see the famous tree in the company of Roger Merryweather as our guide. The concert under the Bramley was a complete surprise and filmed for BBC2 ‘Working Lunch’ programme!  Interviews with Sir John and Roger  had been scheduled for the programme, but the presence of the ‘Belgian chorus’ was entirely fortuitous. Sir John led a spirited, indeed heroic,  performance in the rain.  It will be broadcast this Friday -  4 September on BBC 2 ‘Working Lunch’ at 12.30 pm and you can watch for a further week on the iplayer at bbc.co.uk/iplayer . The ‘Bi-Centenary Song of the Bramley Apple’ has been recorded, sung by Southwell Minster Lay Clerk tenor  accompanied by the choristers and discs will be available shortly – purchase details to follow.

In Southwell, a carved wooden Bramley apple and a blue plaque mark the home of the tree and close by there is a Bramley pub. Further tributes to honour  Southwells’ renowned offspring came this March, when ‘The Bramley Window’, a new stained-glass window, was installed in the Minster. Its design – green Bramley apples set in a framework of scrolls -  form three central features in a large window in the north west transept. This was Roger Merryweather’s munificent gift to the Minster in honour of his family’s long involvement with the Bramley apple and fitting made in his year of office as High Sheriff. To see the window click here ; photographs are available in the Minster Shop. The Bramley tree itself is in reasonably good health and although appearing as an upright branched tree is actually ‘L’ shaped. The tree was blown down in the early 1900s, but propped up by its branches continued to live. Two of these branches grew upwards to form the vertical tree that you now see. These are still growing from the horizontal main trunk, protected by some weather proofing, that lies along the ground and has its roots a couple of feet away. Long may it thrive!

Joan Morgan

Original Bramley's Seedling apple tree

Bramley's Seedling - branches and horizontal main trunk

Apple Juice – some advice please?

I was really interested in your advice on how to make apple juice – see ‘Home-made Apple Juice‘. My Bramley’s Seedling apple tree generates huge quantities of fruit and I am keen to use as much fruit as possible. A couple of queries about your advice -

1. Is it necessary to remove pips from the apples before pulping?
2. In terms of storing the juice – do you need to pasteurize it? And if so, how do you do this?
3. I buy a quality juice made from single apple varieties and they include Vitamin C (antioxidant) in the juice – do you know why? Is it to preserve it?

Wendy Houghton

Cider Questions

Browsing for some good English cider apple varieties I read your cider recipe (see Home-made Cider ). Whatever you do, never let the pulp ferment for a week. It is  a sure way to make vinegar or worse, a brew high on methyl. If you prefer keeving make sure you keep the pulp in a closed container to avoid high oxidation,  start with cold apples, milled on a cold evening leave the pulp at about 8 Celsius or less to rest maximum of 8 hours, or overnight and again to avoid oxidation add potassium metabisulphite, not a pinch but 1/2 gr/10 litre, another 1/2 gr/10litre after pressing. Make sure the sulphite is well distributed in the pulp It is also better not to use fallen apples, unless you collect them immediately. Best way of working is to pluck the apples just before ripeness and to mature them in a well aerated dry place. Wash the apples before pulping in slightly sulphated water, rinse well and let dry.

Dries Flemish

Tayberry Mutation or Cross ?

I grow Tayberry in Jordan River – West Coast on Vancouver Island. This year one bush mutated or crossed with the native to the Island blackberry also called ‘Indian Blood’. The flowers are different, the fruits are more shiny, brighter, and less hairy, and with a more lemony, refreshing taste, a little bit as the mentioned blackberry. The leaves are reddish-yellowish, same shape as the tayberry. The stem is light blue and more fibrous. Can it be tested for new genetics? and if yes, can I patent it? Any suggestions, ideas?

Viktor Benedek

Tatton Park Summer Fruit Show

Collection of six dishes of fruit awarded Hogg Medal

For the first time the Royal Horticultural Society’s Summer Fruit Competition, held last week,  was staged at their Tatton Park Show  in Cheshire, rather than at Hampton Court, outside London. This new location brought the Show within the range of our man from Nottingham, who bagged almost all the firsts!

Adrian Baggaley won eight firsts and the Royal Horticultural Society’s prestigious Hogg Medal, given in memory of the great Victorian  pomologist, Dr Robert Hogg. The Hogg Medal was awarded to his collection of six dishes of fruit -  pictured above; clockwise from bottom left, White Marseille figs, Tomcott apricots, Doyenné d’Eté pears, Summer Sun cherries, Lapins cherries and Red Lake redcurrants. He won the prize for  ‘Best plate in show’ with Summer Sun cherries and first prize for his ‘Basket of fruit containing at least four kinds’ (below) – in fact Adrian’s contained a total of twenty kinds and varieties, from apricots, figs, cherries, black, red, pink and white currants to gooseberries. And  yet further firsts were given for individual plates of currants, cherries, figs and jostaberries.

Well done Adrian! Many congratulations!

Fruit Forum

Prize winning 'Basket of fruit'

Blackberry Growers in Kent, Surrey?

I’m trying to find a blackberry grower in Kent or Surrey to talk to for an article in a forthcoming issue of  Country Kitchen magazine. Can anyone help?

David Porter