Apple Festival at Firle

Apple festivals will be taking place around Britain over the weekend of the 20th and 21st October, for example at the Middle Farm Apple Festival at Firle. This year there is a light harvest due to the frosts and a wet May which led to very poor pollination throughout the country. However, at Apple Days there are usually a wide range of apples available to sample. At the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale 2300 varieties are grown and hundreds can be seen,tasted and bought.

In Sussex, there are over 30 varieties that have arisen in the towns and villages of the county. Some of the best for home gardens are Saltcote Pippin, Tinsley Quince and Crawley Beauty. Action in Rural Sussex and Brighton Permaculture Trust are encouraging the cultivation of Sussex apples by propagating many of the varieties and planting them around local schools and community orchards.

People don’t realise that apple varieties can’t be grown from seed. They will not keep the identity of the parent plant because they will have been cross-pollinated. They are always propagated by grafting or budding to ensure the resultant tree is true to type. This involves taking a stem of the apple variety and uniting it with a compatible apple root stock of known vigour. Varieties of apples are bred or may arise as chance seedlings. For instance, the Stanmer Pippin variety grown at the Plumpton College Stanmer Park site, was a chance seedling discovered by Anne Markwick in the Park itself. It has been raised and trained by the College at its Stanmer Horticultural Training Centre in Brighton. The skin is flushed orange red with some russeting and it is juicy and sweet with a rich flavour. We know it has a good future!

The book Apples & Orchards in Sussex by Brian Short with Peter May, Gail Vines and Anne-Marie Bur was published this month at £15.00 by Action in Rural Sussex & Brighton Permaculture Trust and this provides more information about local varieties including Stanmer Pippin.