Product of the Month SEPTEMBER - Apples

70% of apples bought in the UK are imported (DEFRA) from places such as Chile, South Africa and New Zealand. Throughout August and September - the two month with a wide range of English apples - supermarkets still import 25%.

It is the same old reason for English apples being in short supply in supermarkets and smaller shops…… because of the general public who shop with their eyes and they want round perfect fruit, which means that 50% of apples won’t make the grade, and supermarkets have to go to countries with low labour and land costs.

Discovery apples

The discovery apple is relatively new English apple and it was an Essex farmer, Mr Drummer raised the apple form seedling in 1949. It is thought to come from a Worcester pearmain pip and crossed with a beauty of bath.

Legend has it that having only one arm he asked his wife to help plant the young seedling, where she slipped and fell breaking her ankle. The young sapling was left on the ground, covered only by sacking. This sapling survived.

The discovery apple was at first known by Thurston August, and it wasn’t until the apple went commercial that it got changed to Discovery.

Worcester Pearmain

This apple is believed to be a seedling from the Devonshine Quarmenden raised by Mr Hale near Worcester and was introduced commercially in 1874.

The skin has a green/yellow background with a red colour over the top. The flesh is a white colour. The apple has a sweet flavor and a strong aromatic scent and unique strawberry flavor. These apples are normally crisp and juicy.  

Cox Orange Pippin

This apples parentage is unknown but was first discovered in Buckinghamshire in 1825 by a gentleman called Richard Cox. This apple is harder to grow and get a successful crop because of diseases such as mildew and canker.

The apple is sweet and juicy with a crisp flesh which is also very scented.

Egremont Russet

This type of apple is a dessert apple and was first recorded in 1872 and thought to have been raised by the Earl of Egremont in Sussex. It has a greenish/brown colour with a rough skin and has a nutty scent and very sweet tasting.

The Russet apple is the 3^rd most common English Apple.

There are plenty of other English apples and make sure you keep your eyes open in the next month for them hitting the shop's shelves.