After a very busy period, The English Apple Man is at last able to relax a little and take stock of recent events!
English Apples and Pears are now very prominent in all the leading Supermarkets.
Visiting a Waitrose store on Tuesday, English Cox, Spartan, Empire, Gala, Egremont Russet, Early Windsor & Bramley apples were on plentiful display along with Conference, Comice and Taylors Gold pears. With imported Braeburn, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious & Jazz apples and Rocha, Blush Forelle, Ripe & Ready Green Williams & Dutch Conference pears. Organic Pink Lady, Jazz and Gala completing the range!
The English Apple Man purchased Taylors Gold, a Comice Pear sport with an even golden russet. 'Delicious' with cheese and biscuits!
The new season celebrations continue, although Apple Day and the 'main events' centred on last week.
Common Ground's Apple Day was last Wednesday, 20th October, this coincides nicely with The National Fruit Show, now in it's 77th year and held at Detling Showground in Kent on 20th & 21st October, and many Festivals paying homage to the apple across the country.
The English Apple Man is very involved in The National Fruit Show; this is the premier trade event for growers and suppliers. Numbers were a little down on last year, probably due to the fine weather with many farms growing later varieties like Braeburn & Cameo still to be picked. However the quality of show fruit was as good we have seen for many a year. .
Growers compete in various classes. The main varieties; Cox, Gala, Russets, Braeburn, Bramley, Conference, Concorde & Comice Pears and newer classes for Jazz, Rubens, Cameo and Kanzi.
Additional classes for 'Any other varieties' in Dessert, Culinary and Pears and opportunities for junior entries complete the show fruit competition.
The biggest Apple & Pear competition always attracts interest, particularly from the media.
Classes for Juice, Nuts, Soft Fruit and Tomatoes add diversity and opportunity for the 'fruit sector' to display and promote the best of English fruit
The tastiest Apple Competition is always highly prized. This year Rubens was the Winner with Kanzi second & Jazz third.
Many hours of careful selection go into each show fruit entry and to win, a mark of 97 (100) is not a guarantee of first place. Often the winner may need 99 out of 100 .
It's 3pm and time for the winners to receive their trophies. Presented by The National Fruit Show President Michael Jack, accompanied by NFS Chair Sarah Calcutt
There are always many interesting things to see at the show and one stand particularly caught my eye. Frank P Matthews the Nursery at Tenbury Wells near Worcester run by Nick Dunn and his daughter Stephanie produces many trees for the garden market as well as the commercial sector. Nick Dunn's book 'Trees for Life' is a 'must have' for any grower or gardener.
Amongst the many varieties on the stand, I found two particularly interesting varieties. One an old favourite, Ashmead's Kernel and another Christmas Pippin, which eats very well and reminds me of Cox when I was boy when 'taste' was all and generous red colour was not considered as important as it is today.
BONANZA!The last award is The Bonanza Prize which is presented at The NFS Dinner, held this year at The Orangery at Turkey Mill in Maidstone on the evening of the first day of the show. This award is designed to encourage entries to the show classes. Growers with more than three entries gaining an aggregate 85 points are awarded a place in the draw for The Bonanza Prize. In recent years an 'overseas' trip for two people to another fruit growing region has been the prize.
This year, the Sponsor of The Bonanza Prize, The FRUIT Grower magazine offered an innovative prize of five 'etchings' by Graham Clarke the renowned Kent artist, author and humorist. Graham is one of Britain's most prolific printmakers, bringing his own unique brand of humour to his interpretation of past and present history through the eyes of the common man. All his etchings are handmade using techniques dating back several hundred years.
The 2010 winners are Nigel and Annette Bardsley from River Farm at Staplehurst in Kent. The prize was presented by Chris Tanton, Editor of The FRUIT Grower.
In the picture below Annette and Nigel Bardsley (on the left) with Chris Tanton and Sarah Calcutt display the Bonanza prize.
Last weekend The Festival of British Fruit took place at East Malling Research where visitors could see displays of the show fruit from The National Fruit Show and enjoyed tasting and purchasing many varieties of English Apples at their very best.
Always a favourite The Bramley Campaign baking Bramley apple pies for delighted visitors!
Visitors commented very favourably on the range of other produce available for tasting. Organic Apple Juice from Moor Organics, Cider, Wines and Apple Juices from Biddenden Vineyards, Cobnuts, Walnuts & Almonds from Kent Cobnuts, Apple Crisps from Perry Court Farm at Ashford.
The East Malling Research stand attracted many visitors, with samples of insects and diseases under the microscope; children and adults found this fascinating.
Maria our Show Secretary organised a Pumpkin competition, asking visitors to guess how many 2kg bags of sugar would equal the weight of the Pumpkin.
The Winning guess (7.25) was very close to the exact weight of 7.33 bags.
Malling Heritage displayed varieties of trees available from the nursery and products from their range.
The EAM highly recommends their Handmade Red Onion Marmalade!
Face painting is always popular with the younger children, this young lady poses infront of The WFM stand manned by Charles Tassell & Viv Neaves.
Organic juice from Moor Organics & Cider and Wine from Biddenden Vineyards A good story of English production replacing imported, is evident in the success of Moor Organics and Biddenden Vineyards.
Moor Organics started 10 years ago when Nick Moor and his family decided to move away from conventional production and change completely to Organic Apples & Pears. The transformation has been in no small part due to the success of their juice production which supplements organic apple & pear sales in the leading UK Supermarkets.
Biddenden Vineyards has been in operation for much longer, but is now at the forefront of English wine, cider & apple juice production. BV receives some 30,000 visitors a year to it's Vineyard, Restaurant and Shop.
The future of farming and growing in England is well supported by WFM (why farming matters) an NFU initiative aimed at ensuring consumers understand and support the importance of home grown produce!
No show can be a success without the support of the participants and helpers.
The English Apple Man recognises two particular 'stars' amongst the fantastic group of standholders and helpers.
Theresa Huxley, Sainsburys Product Technologist not only gave up her entire weekend to man her stand at The Festival, but drove 2+ hours each way from her home near Cambridge on Saturday & Sunday. A true supporter of English Produce.
Simon Townsend, representing BASF a major sponsor of The National Fruit Show, gave up his entire weekend to help at The Festival, then drove 'wait for it' back to his home in North Yorkshire!
That is all for this week!
Until next week
Take care
The English Apple Man