Rich pickings

IT'S become fashionable to lament the demise of the English apple - while at the same time, of course, we all rush out to the supermarket every weekend to buy our Golden Delicious or Granny Smiths.

Me? Personally, I don't think the demise of the English apple can come soon enough: not now I know the secret of its shameful history, at least.

The apples of Ryedale, it seems, played a part in the decline of one of the planet's most magnificent creatures. And I'd never have known about it unless Jan Hoyland, head gardener at Nunnington Hall and a woman dedicated to the preservation of apples, hadn't let me into the secret.

"Ryedale has been an apple-growing area for some time. Hundreds of years, centuries," she says, harmlessly enough. "I would imagine it is something to do with the climate. There are a number of apples which are traditional to the area."

Nothing too sordid there. But wait. "What everyone talks about," she continues, "is the fact that they were taken off to Whitby to be put on whaling ships. To keep scurvy at bay."

Pardon? Was that whaling ships? Sadly, yes. It was apples like the Greenups Pippin, Green Balsam and Cockpit that were used, explains Jan. "All good keeping apples."

Well, obviously. They'd have to be if they were to remain fit to eat during long voyages to the Arctic or Antarctic or wherever it was the whalers went. But knowing it was Ryedale apples that sustained ships' crews during the long months in pursuit of their murderous trade - well, I'll never look at an apple in the same way again.

Ryedale apples weren't only used to help murder whales, Jan assures me. They were also used to put a bit of backbone into the jam industry. With the whaling fleets in decline, Ryedale apples were put on special 'apple trains' to Leeds, where they were crushed to extract pectin. Pectin, in case you were wondering, is great for helping jam to set. A real stiffener.

You'd not think it to look at Ryedale today (unless you visit to the great orchard at Ampleforth Abbey, of course): but once, Jan says, there would have been orchards everywhere. Every large estate or farm would have had one. Ironically, often the only real sign of them now are the plum trees growing in local hedgerows.

"Because it was so windy, they used to grow plum trees around the orchards to act as a wind break," she says.

At Nunnington, Jan grows about ten varieties of English apples once common in the area. Her National Trust colleague John Thallon at Beningbrough Hall can top that. There are 33 varieties growing in the walled garden there - apples with such evocative names as the Court of Wick, the Catshead and the Ribston Pippin.

John goes a long way towards restoring my faith in the apple. It's not, after all, the fruit's fault that it was press-ganged into action against the whale. And John's enthusiasm is infectious - even if his delivery is a trifle understated.

He takes a bite from a crisp red apple he's just plucked from tree. There's no discernible reaction - until he turns to me and says: "The taste on some of these is absolutely astounding. Really nutty and crunchy."

It's true. With John's permission I pluck a Golden Russet from a tree and take a bite. The taste, to someone used to Golden Delicious, is extraordinary; crisp and nutty, with a sweetness laced with a hint of sour.

John is a man who knows his apples. Several thousand varieties were at one time grown within our shores, he believes. The National Fruit Centre in Kent still has up to 2,000 - and a good few were once grown in and around York. An 1825 Backhouse catalogue contained about 125 varieties, all known to have been grown in the area. John used the catalogue to decide which varieties to go for when, in 1985, he began to restock the orchard at Beningbrough, which had fallen into neglect.

Just how important apples were is proved by the lengths people went to to keep them. In the old clock tower at Beningbrough is a sophisticated apple store: an airtight room in which the apples would be placed. As they ripened, they gave off carbon dioxide, which in turn slowed down the process of decay.

The sheer variety of apples our ancestors grew is easy to understand once you realise they all had different qualities. Some would keep for a long time - the only way you could be sure of still having apples to eat by Easter. Some ripened early, some ripened late. Others were good for eating, for baking, for slicing into pies or for making preserves.

Actually, John admits, by growing apples with certain selected qualities, modern producers aren't doing anything apple-growers haven't been doing for centuries. It's just that the qualities valued by growers today are different from those valued in the past. Mass-producers of apples want varieties that can be easily grown and harvested in large numbers; that are disease and bruise resistant; and that are of a standard size and appearance. "Although something that looks nice doesn't necessarily taste nice," John points out acidly.

The really fascinating thing about apples, though, is that each apple is genetically identical to other apples of the same variety. Every single Golden Delicious (or Cox's Orange Pippin or Dumelow's Wellington) is in a sense grown from the 'same' tree as every other Golden Delicious, John says.

That's because apple varieties are promulgated by taking cuttings from an existing tree and grafting them on to a root stock. There is no pollination in the process. "You're basically taking a cutting from a cutting from a cutting from a cutting," John says. "They're all the same plant."

It's an interesting thought. There are still believed to be some apple varieties around that date back to Roman times. Take a bite out of one of those, and you're really eating the same apple your Roman ancestor might have enjoyed 2,000 years ago.

It's almost enough to make me forgive the fruit.

Events to mark National Apple Day include:

Nunnington Hall, nr Helmsley, North Yorkshire - A Festival of Apples, until tomorrow. Contact 01439 748283.

Harlow Carr Botanic Gardens, Harrogate, today, 10am-4pm. Display of more than 200 varieties, plus tastings, identification, children's quiz and competitions. Contact 01423 565418.

The Roger Plant Centre, Pickering, today 9am-5pm, tomorrow 1-5pm. Apple identification, display of apple varieties. Contact 01751 472226.

Beningbrough Hall,

Beningbrough, October 21-31. Week of apple activities. Contact 01904 470666.

Updated: 09:10 Saturday, October 20, 2001