The Journal gives a weekly update on events in our English apple orchards, using pictures and video clips to follow seasonal activities and giving the consumer a level of detail not available from any other source.
All aspects of growing, harvesting, storage, grading, packing and marketing are included enabling consumers to understand the challenges English growers face in supplying our sophisticated market place.
This week, The English Apple Man spent a day with Darren Wallis AC Goatham's Technical Manager visiting a number of fruit farms in the AC Goatham business. the largest apple and pear growing business in the UK.
The business has changed considerably since it was started in 1947 by Clive's parents, Arthur and Phyllis Goatham, who began buying fruit directly from the farm gate, picking it, packing it and taking it to wholesale markets.
Today ACG grow apples and pears on 26 farms totalling circa 3,000 acres spread across Kent from their headquarters at Flanders Farm, Hoo, Rochester on the Isle of Grain to Farms in East Kent
My day with Darren 'consolidated my appreciation' of what it takes to build a business of this size and scale. There are many key factors which collectively demonstrate the holistic nature of success!
There are many very good growers growing equally excellent apples and pears, but few who manage to succeed on the massive scale of AC Goatham.
It starts at the top and Clive Goatham is a remarkable but in many ways an 'understated' leader. I have observed over a number of years he has built a management structure where he chooses high quality managers, and importantly allows them to manage!
Growing on this scale also requires a 'uniform orchard system' as we drive around the thousands of acres, the uniformity of growing system and uniformity of trees within each row is outstanding!
For an understanding of the ACG history. Click on: AC Goatham celebrates 70 years
While the potential 'fruit set' is at the heart of this week's English Apple Man Journal, The EAM highlights a scientist who has achieved so much while working at Niab East Malling in Kent and Growing Kent & Medway.
Her recollections of our first meeting in Kent at an open day at East Malling are clearer than mine (brain fade!) but we met when she and her husband Richard joined NIAB Emr. My knowledge of apple growing (her words) was an introduction to 'to the top fruit sector' for her and Richard.
Over the years I have enjoyed a great relationship with Nikki and Richard during my many visits to NIAB EMR.
Following Richard's appointment as the Managing Director of the Plant Sciences Group Wageningen Research, in the Netherlands Nikki has been a regular weekend commuter to join Richard in Holland
Dr Nikki Harrison departs role as Director o Growing Kent & Medway
After an incredible four years at Growing Kent & Medway, I have taken the difficult decision to leave my role to take up a new position in the Netherlands.
I am incredibly proud of all we have achieved so far and I leave knowing the team remains committed to our mission to support the sector and to drive sustainable, economic growth in the region. It has been a privilege to oversee the investment of £8.6 million in cutting-edge research facilities which have significantly boosted the region's capabilities.
We have awarded over £3.9 million in grant funding that is having a tangible impact on the sustainability of our food and farming systems. Networking and partnerships have been at the core of our strategy, and we have recorded over 220 new collaborations between businesses and research organisations so far, helping to drive innovation and bring new products and processes to market.
I want to thank all of the Growing Kent & Medway partners, industry representatives and my team for their support in delivering exceptional technical and business services. A new Director has been appointed and will be announced soon. I look forward to watching the programme continue to grow in the future under their leadership. Dr Nikki Harrison
Click on: Growing Kent & Medway for an overview of GK&M 2023
Every year about this time, The English Apple Man visits Chris Hunt, an old friend for a tour of his Cider orchards in bloom
We are both in our early/mid 80's and turning the clock back 55 years, his father John and my father Jack were both growers and packers of the finest English apples which they supplied to a market stall in Spitalfields Market in London.
At that period of time, we supplied McCloud McCombe in Spitalfields Market (the old market) along with John Hunt a fruit grower in East Sussex and 'Dan Neuteboom from Suffolk. In 1970 Spitalfields celebrated its 50 years since 1920 the City of London acquired direct control of the market, extending the original buildings eight years later. For the next 60 years, Spitalfields' nationwide reputation grew, as did the traffic congestion in the narrow streets around it.
We were invited by Norman & George McCombe to the 1970 celebrations.
'We' being Mum & Dad, me and my wife. There we met for the first time Dan Neuteboom by now making a name for himself as one of the most progressive young apple growers in England.
Hunts Cider
With more than 100 varieties on the farm; some (Long Ashton trial varieties) only as a single tree; cider apple varieties such as Harry Masters Jersey, Dabinett, Coat Jersey, Kingston Black, Brown's Apple, Ashton Bitter, Michelin, Yarlington Mill, Chisel Jersey, Vilberie and Brown Snout, plus many other lesser known varieties make it possible to create an eclectic mix of ciders.
This year has seen fantastic weather for blossom time and petal fall is rapid as fruit set is enjoying perfect temperatures.
It is a long time since we have seen a season like this, usually if lucky we get patches of warm sunny weather leading up to blossom time and a day or two warm enough to get the pollinating insects doing their job!
Of course good weather for pollination is the first thing on our minds, but Fertilizationis a critical element in the process of achieving a good crop.
On the subject of pollination, the weather is key. Ideally a constant day time temperature of 20 C with no frost at night is utopia, however that rarely happens. Many factors influence fruit set, the quality of fruit bud; namely its nutrient reserves, depend on circumstances over the past 9 months; the influence of last seasons crop load, the speed with which the crop was removed last autumn (the later the harvest, the more stress on the tree) winter chill, e.g. sufficient dormancy (trees need to sleep) all affect the fruit bud quality.
This week The English Apple Man visited a number of orchards in full bloom, but via my armchair as BAPL grower members have been allowing me access to their 'BAPL Orchard Watch' files. Beautiful blossom at various stages and a prolific be activity enhance these special pictures
Over the last few weeks, the cold but sunny weather has coaxed the apple and pear blossom from bud burst towards blossom time. In years past, this process was fairly uniform. The main variety was Cox and other varieties were of a similar development stage.
Today the divergence of varieties reach blossom time at different stages: e.g. Braeburn in advance of Gala and then Cox. There are many more.....
But always Pear before Apple
Speaking to an East Kent grower today, he confirmed his variety spread has the early flowering varieties well into full bloom and late flowering varieties at early stage of bloom.
While most apple farms are/were founded by families, some have grown to become multi million pound enterprises. This week The EAM visited Victoria Farm at Hadlow in Kent created by Peter and Gina Kedge on a modest parcel of land owned by her father and developed over 30 years into what is now 65 hectares of modern orchards on several sites bought by Peter & Gina over the years.
I was attracted to Peter and Gina by parallels with my own background which was also of a similar model, very much a family farm of which I was the third generation. Like Victoria Farm we grew, stored and packed our apples on farm and marketed through a marketing group to Sainsbury and Tesco.
Peter and Gina now joined by their youngest daughter Jessica have grown their apple farming business but increased it from an initially small base into an area circa 150 - 200 acres. Their two other daughters; Isobel and Lucy are currently making their lives in Wales and Bournemouth respectively.
Below: from the Victoria Farm website
Victoria Farm Ltd is a family owned fruit growing company established over 30 years ago at its present location in Hadlow, Nr Tonbridge in the beautiful countryside of Kent. We grow many varieties of apples including Gala, Bramley, Cameo, Cox, Braeburn, September Wonder, Cheerfull Gold, Russet, Red Windsor etc. Usual picking season is approximately August to November and packing is August until April.
We have a dedicated modern top fruit packhouse with full BRC accreditation and all fruit is grown to the red tractor standard.
Following on from last week's Journal featuring The Marden Fruit Show Society AGM, this week we feature British Apples and Pears AGM
The English Apple Man Comments: We (the apple and pear industry) have endured an increasingly challenging period over the last 2-3 years, but Ali Capper and her team at BAPL have honed an already progressive vehicle into a comprehensive organisation supporting our British Apple and Pear Industry.
Below: Ali Capper, executive chair of BAPL, & Guest speaker Robbie Moore, MP.
BAPL was delighted to share the day with friends and colleagues from the National Fruit Show. The National Fruit Show held its AGM first, followed by a guest speaker and then BAPL ran its AGM. Many attendees joined for all three sessions.
The guest speaker was Defra shadow minister, Robbie Moore. Robbie spoke about the concerns he shares with growers.
Specifically, he talked about the Land Use Framework Consultation, IHT and changes to compulsory purchase powers. Robbie stressed his belief that food security should be at the heart of Defra. In addition to sharing his thoughts, Robbie also answered questions from growers at the AGM. He stayed all morning and listened to concerns, also making practical suggestions to help.
Robert Peter Moore is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keighley and Ilkley, formerly Keighley, in West Yorkshire since the 2019 general election. He has been Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since July 2024.
In the BAPL AGM, Ali Capper provided an update on the extensive activities in the last financial year (August 2023 to July 2024). This included:
The output of a strategic review into the future activity of BAPL, including the strongly positive feedback from members about current activities. R&D highlights. The extensive retail and government advocacy work. An update on export activities
An overview of the crop and sales to date (September 2024 to February 2025). Social media reach performance up 147% on 2023. Website visitors up 48% on 2023. Huge success with the OrchardWatch social media posts sharing a fascinating look inside our growers' orchards
The great start of season promotional work from several retailers to get behind British at this crucial time.
The plans for 2025, which include working with retailers to ensure we see new season apples on TV and celebrated in store and online
With this ongoing sunny weather, all plant life is moving rapidly and our fruit trees changing daily as apples move from budburst rapidly to green cluster and now pink bud.
This week the English Apple Man joined members of the apple and pear community at the Annual General Meetings of je Marden Fruit Show and British Apples and Pears at The Mumford Building at East Malling as NIAB provided the location for these two leading organisations as we enter another year of British Apples.
In this week's Journal we will report primarily on the Marden Fruit Show Society who organise The National Fruit Show
Below: Sainsburys apple display with British apples and pears available
It seems only a while ago that the British Apple and Pear season started and here we are approaching the end of March.
The English Apple Man visited a few Supermarkets in my vicinity to appraise the presence of home grown apples and pears.
In days gone by (30-40 years ago) the UK season was drawing to a close by the end of March as Cox our main variety exhausted its storage life. Cox from New Zealand arrived followed by Gala Braeburn and other varieties from the antipodeans.
Growing husbandry and modern storage have enabled 'home grown' varieties like; Gala, Braeburn, Cameo, Smitten, Kanzi & Jazz to extend our sales into May, June and July.
The English Apple Man bought Kanzi, Smitten, Cameo, Jazz & Royal Gala for tasting and all were of good quality, and all with firm texture indicating plenty of shelf life for the consumer.
Nice to see more sunshine and some real warmth, if only occasionally.
This morning (Friday) my wife and I popped into see our son for a coffee and I advised him on some minor pruning of his espalier apple trees. The tree format was changed from a centre leader to espalier in 2019 when he moved the trees from the front of house to a much more suitable and sunnier site in the back garden.
While the trees are not a 'perfect Espalier format' they are doing well and have been producing superb quality apples over the last few years. We are now trying to maximise the fruiting area (buds) while keeping vegetative growth under control, with late winter and summer pruning!
Classic Espalier format
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