Choosing from such a huge range is tricky, so it’s worth envisaging a Venn diagram of parameters that are important to you.
Flavour and texture ought to be uppermost. Take recommendations from people you trust; better still, try the fruit if you can. My favourite eating apples include ‘Orleans Reinette’, ‘Beauty of Bath’, ‘Blenheim Orange’, ‘Ashmead’s Kernel’ and ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’. ‘Bramley’ and ‘Annie Elizabeth’ are superb cooking apples and ‘Veitch’s Perfection’ is the perfect cooking and eating apple.
Consider whether you want a long, steady supply of apples, a glut, or somewhere in between. The earliest varieties, such as ‘Beauty of Bath’, can be eaten in late July, are best straight from the tree and don’t store well. Others may need a period of storage to reach their best and—as with ‘Orleans Reinette’—might not be ready to eat until the new year. A dry, cool place such as a garage is ideal for storage: lay dry, undamaged fruit in a single layer not touching each other.
Pollination compatibility is central. Most apples require a pollinating partner from the same or neighbouring pollination group. To give an example, an apple from group four can be pollinated by a variety from group three, four or five. If you have room for only one apple, choose one of the few self-pollinating varieties, such as ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’.
Denne historien er fra October 04, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 04, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds