For those of you wondering what I'm on about, I took the family to RHS Harlow Carr today for their Taste of Autumn event. On what proved to be the coldest day of the autumn so far (aka bloody freezing!), the kids were amused by the monster trail and seemed not to notice the cold, whilst Mrs D and I found a sheltered spot and drank hot soup.
The monster trail just happened to take us via the apple identification greenhouse being carried out by the Northern Fruit Group. After filling in some paperwork to let them know everything I knew about the apple - it didn't take long to fill in! - the first suggestion was Belle de Boskoop. After various consultations with books and a comparison with the ones on display it was agreed that this was what it probably was. Despite the fact it didn't look much like the one they had on display, mine being far redder.
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| Northern Fruit Group version |
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| My version of Belle de Boskoop |
Still they seemed impressed with my apples and said it would be good to graft some trees from them as mine are very red and appeared to be a good apple, so place your orders now!
After a bit of searching once I got home, apparently they're somewhat sort after and much more common in mainland Europe, having originated in Holland. They also make a very good apple pie - which I will selflessly be making and eating, purely in the interests of research of course - store very well, mellowing around Christmas time to make them edible as an 'eater'. Which is what I was hoping for and well worth looking after those in storage!
The apple display was good, with a wonderful smell and they even had some apples for sale - we declined.
After the kids finished the monster trail we headed for Betty's Tea Shop (the branch at the Gardens), took one look at the queue, bought a couple of cakes to keep the kids happy and headed home, with the heater on to defrost. Sadly there seemed to be far more people in the Tea Shop than the Gardens.
6 comments:
Glad you seem to have a name for your apple and that it is royalty as far as apples are concerned.
"...so place your orders now!"
We'd love an apple tree! Karen was saying on Saturday that she'd like to have a go at fan-training...
How many do you want Tim? Fan training, in our nice Northerly facing slope, let me know how that goes ;>)
Thanks Rob. I'll consult with Karen and find out how many she'd like.
Are there pollination issues that we need to think about due to Belle de Boskoop being a triploid? Or are there enough trees around that we can just put anything in the ground and expect it to get pollinated?
That's how many apples would you like, not trees there Tim! Unless you fancy trying your hand at grafting...
Ah, I misunderstood: "... it would be good to graft some trees from them as mine are very red and appeared to be a good apple, so place your orders now!"
Yeah, I thought grafting could be worth a try (always ready to have a go), but I'll settle for some apples if that's what you meant. :)
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