Crunch Time

Faced with rising temperatures and competition from non-native varieties, the British heritage apples we once took for granted are now under threat

Words by Johanna Derry Hall

The tight round form of a Cox’s Orange Pippin, the pleasing brown skin of an Egremont Russet, the heft of a Bramley – most of us will have encountered these British heritage apples, if not in a supermarket, then perhaps at a farm shop or local greengrocer. Around a third of the world’s 7,500 apple varieties originated in Britain. “We have, or rather we had, the perfect climate for growing apples,” says Caroline Ball, author of Heritage Apples (Bodleian Library).

For centuries, farmers, gardeners and hobbyists grafted and grew varieties perfectly suited to their local weather and soil, giving them names to chew on: Acklam Russet, Devonshire Quarrenden, Laxton’s Superb. Some were found to be perfect for a particular dish: the Blenheim Orange, for example, cooks to a stiff puree ideal for making apple charlotte. Today, the UK’s National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Kent hosts 2,131 varieties, but many of these are now under threat. “Apples need cold as well as sunshine and heat,” says Ball. “Around 1,000 hours of not necessarily freezing but below fridge temperature weather. If they don’t get this, they don’t fruit well.”

This is one of the reasons why the biggest-selling apples today –Braeburn, Pink Lady, Gala and Jazz – were cultivated in either Australia or New Zealand. They need fewer chill hours, making them more suitable for a climate with rising temperatures.

It’s not the first time heritage apples have been threatened. This year marks the 140th anniversary of the National Apple Congress when, concerned by the influx of imported American apples, the Royal Horticultural Society asked British growers to send in an example of their own varieties. “They were overwhelmed with responses,” says Ball. “They tested them and drew up a list of the top 60 eating apples and the top 60 cooking varieties. Sadly, those that didn’t make the lists lost ground, as people stopped growing them.”

So what makes a “good” apple? Worldwide Fruit represents the UK’s largest apple-growing co-operative. As its technical and procurement director Tony Harding explains, growers now look for consistency from one year to the next. Crispness is paramount, as “soft apples are a real turn-off”. They should have a flavour “that’s not too tart and not too sweet” and a light texture: “They need to be easy to chew.” Lastly, they have to look good: “Modern apples tend to be red.”

Ball points out that apples are a particularly evocative fruit when it comes to the English language: “Someone could be described as being ‘rotten to the core’. You might talk about ‘an apple that didn’t fall far from the tree’, or ‘the apple of one’s eye’.” This ancient fruit also marks our seasons and festivities like no other, from bobbing apples at Halloween to regional variations of the apple wassail, which in Somerset sees the last of the mulled cider ceremonially offered to the Apple Tree Man, a spirit said to inhabit the oldest tree in an orchard.

For now, we still hold on to the legacy of breeding programmes that produced, for example, the Golden Pippin at Parham House (just down the road from Goodwood in West Sussex), and dates such as Apple Day in October, which celebrate our native fruit varieties – and the wildlife and biodiversity of orchards. “Visit any farm shop and you’ll find an abundance of local apples,” says Ball. “Once you try them, it’s quite a revelation. But if we don’t buy them, they will disappear.”