| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| yummersetter |
lost apple treasuresI've got three unidentified apples, ancient trees that grandfather grew, he used to come home with a pocketful of sticks, graft them onto a handy treetrunk and that was it. I've tried Brogdale and Wisley and they have no idea what they are.One of them was very spindly and forty foot tall with tiny red apples - a few years back I cut the limbs down to eight foot above ground level so that I'd have new shoots for grafting material. Then I forgot about it, its right down in the bottom corner in the wild area. Good firewood supply, anyway. Yesterday I happened to notice lots of medium sized pretty red apples on it and tried one - it was lovely, probably a Worcester cross of some sort as it has smooth unbroken red skin and tasted strongly of strawberries - what a treasure. Too late for Worcester Pearmain, though, and that would have been identifiable. I think I'll try our local experts and see if anyone can ID it now that its growing well again. And try and graft it onto a stock, as granddad did sixty-odd years ago. |
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| Nick |
If you get stuck and fancy it, someone comes and nicks my apples every year from Freecycle to convert them into cider. He was able and happy to ID my ancient orchard breeds. I can ask him, and maybe you could supply sample fruits, or pics, or whatever he needed? | ||||
| cab |
If it was that big, then unless you can see an obvious point where it was grafted I'd consider the possibility that its a wildling, and it may just be impossible to identify as any particular strain because it is unique. | ||||
| yummersetter |
Cab - no. it's a proper orchard tree, six foot standard trunk then (originally) about five main branches at the end of a line of regularly planted trees- well over sixty years old. He was knowledgeable about apples so it was probably something he thought was special.
Thanks Nick - I think it's likely to be local to Somerset though - I have looked it up in the usual books (Bultitude etc) and it hasn't matched anything there. I've just emailed Charlton Orchards as they're holding an event soon. Scotts, of course, is gone. It was at John's suggestion that we cut it back to get good scions. I'm just glad we gave it a chance to regenerate and didn't use the entire tree as winter fuel. I'll juice the windfalls next weekend - it'll be interesting to see if the flavour holds. All else fails I'll rechristen it myself. 'Yummerset Strawberry Red', has a good ring to it, doncha think? |
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| mochyn |
Where's Tahir? | ||||
| yummersetter |
do you think I should send him some to try, again? 
I've arranged to take some to the apple ID session on Saturday at Charltons http://www.charltonorchards.com/events.html I'd be very interested to visit there anyway, they have an excellent range of apples on sale. |
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| tahir |
Why not? 
Every WP cross I can think of would be overdone by now. |
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| mochyn |
You were on the radio last week. | ||||
| tahir |
??? |
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| mochyn |
Talking about your work building on radio 4. | ||||
| tahir |
?????? | ||||
| mochyn |
Was it your brother then? Talking about how the building used to be a Yiddish theater. | ||||
| tahir |
Really? Nope, it was me. I'd forgotten all about it, what was the fella's name? |
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| mochyn |
I don't know: vaguely Jewish... Quite an interesting programme, though. Umm... sorry, Yum: blatant hi-jack there! |
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| yummersetter |
No problem
I heard something like that too, without really listening could it be this? David Schneider?? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n5nz2/My_Yiddisher_Mother_Tongue/ |
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| mochyn |
That's the bunny! (Are bunnies kosher?) | ||||
| tahir |
That's the fella, thanks YM, might give it a listen tonight as long as I can FF my bit. | ||||
| mochyn |
I thought you sounded surprisingly intelligent. Say hello to K and the girls for me! | ||||
| gz |
Scotts gone? 
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| Belinda |
There is a chap in Hertfordshire who is great at identifying unusual traditional apple varieties. Michael somebody at Tewin Orchards. He comes every year to a local Apple Day for our community garden. A while ago he IDd my two very old apple trees from a fruit, twig and leaf from each. One tree turned out to be something fairly ordinary but the other was an Allington Pippin which is very rare in Herts.
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| yummersetter |
yes, very sadly, following the sudden death of John Scott Wallis. They've been struggling to survive for the past few years anyway. http://tinyurl.com/topfruitnurseriesthread |
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| tahir |
Sorry to derail this thread even further, hought the programme was quite boring, there's a 2 parter on Yiddish available as a podcast from R4 or World Service which is a lot better. | ||||
| Bebo |
Talking of lost apples..........
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8305211.stm |
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| tahir |
Yeah, this has been on the cards for years, no idea how to help though. | ||||
| yummersetter |
Derail away, let she who is without sin cast the first stone 
At least now I know I was right not to properly listen in the first place In back of the car yesterday I had about 100 Concord pears, 50 quinces, about 50 random apples and also 4 Yummerset Strawberry Reds. When I opened the car door to get one out it smelled as if a pot of strawberry jam had been spilled, even with all that competition. I'll have a look for slightly more perfect versions to send, properly picked - these are a bit 'rustic', if you know what I mean. |
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| tahir |
Did they have seatbelts on? |
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| yummersetter |
. . . .and a large irish setter, a bag of potatoes and squashes, two weeks clean washing, groceries, computer and the VAT return paperwork, a first aid kit, spare car lightbulbs, a case of medical stuff, a freezer box, chocolate cake, a woven wall hanging . . . nope, the fruit wasn't going to need a seatbelt, it didn't have room to roll
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| welshboy454 |
As a child we had a tree with apples so described ripe in September but keeping well. I think they were called Red Toms but I have not been able to google them. A white flesh quite firm but tasty. | ||||
| yummersetter |
I took two different unknown apples to Charlton Orchards - the YSR is actually Monarch, I'm pretty sure, though no mention of the strawberry flavour in any of the reading I've done. I'm afraid the strawberriness is fading now so probably not worth posting (should the post actually function next week). I've put out a request on OP's Monarch page to other owners asking if theirs was the same.
The other I saw on sale there and it's Lanes Prince Albert, quite pleased to have that. They had about 50 varieties to taste, the one we liked best that we didn't grow ourselves was labelled Red Pippin ( I didn't realise it was actually Fiesta) Just one more mystery apple to name now, but there weren't many this year on the tree. |
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| mochyn |
We had the frist apples from our Lord Lambourne today. Fantastic! |