British apples really are best – but we need to save them now
telegraph.co.ukavailable all year, autumn is when the most interesting and diverse varieties are within reach. British apples are the best in the world (I’m standing by that), in part because our temperate maritime climate means they ripen more slowly than in hotter countries.
The heat this summer might not sound like good news then, but the chair of growers’ association British Apples & Pears, Ali Capper, who farms on the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border, insists that the stress the trees have been under has made for a particularly fine crop.
Nonetheless, it’s been a challenging season for apple growers, with a triple whammy of drought, rising fuel costs and labour worries. ‘I think most growers were looking at their trees in early July, thinking they had a beautiful crop.
Everything was set nicely,’ says Capper. Then came the heatwave, and with it apple damage as some fruit developed ‘sun scorch’. ‘A big nasty brown patch on the face of the apple isn’t nice to look at, but also, if it’s very severe, the skin is effectively damaged, so the apple underneath will start to deteriorate,’ she explains.
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