THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT AN APPLE
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
The Cotswolds’ traditional orchards are disappearing. Fast. About 75% of Gloucestershire’s orchards have been lost in the past 50 years, mainly through changes in agriculture and in the way supermarkets buy and source fruit. If you’ve ever tried to find British apples at major supermarkets during peak apple harvest season, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
But most of the 100+ apple varieties that are unique to Gloucestershire can’t even be eaten, so why does this even matter? A visit to the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust explains it all.
Situated on the banks of the River Severn in Longney, the Trust’s flagship orchard is an 18-acre haven of biodiversity. Over 200 fruit trees line the fields that stretch alongside the river, buzzing with birds, bees and other insects. It’s a bucolic scene if ever there was one.
Early ripening plums, apples and pears adorn the trees which are lovingly cared for by Martin and a team of volunteers. It’s a lifetime’s work, but one that Martin feels passionately about.
You see, this isn’t just some nod to a bygone era, it’s helping to protect our future too. In the Trust’s three orchards there are a number of rare heritage varieties of apple and pear, some so scarce that this small patch of Gloucestershire is home to the last-standing specimen in the whole world.
Yes, it might be so tart and full of tannins that your mouth feels drier than the Sahara Desert on your first bite, but this apple still needs to be protected. Why? Because, somewhere deep in its DNA, it may hold the answer to some future fruit-related Covid-type outbreak.
We saw during Covid how nature can shapeshift, so imagine if there was some kind of apple pest that began to wipe out our fruit trees. A world where there was no more apple pie, no more apple crumble and custard, no refreshing apple juice or even cider! This one variety might just contain some pest-resistant strand of apple magic that we could use to safeguard our favourite fruit’s future.
And remember those bees I mentioned? We are facing (in the words of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust) an insect apocalypse. The insect population is at an all-time low, and without our pollinators, we simply cannot grow food. And if we can’t grow food, we cannot feed people.
That’s why Martin and his team work so hard to protect these important orchards. Of course, we also benefit from the fruits of his labour in other ways too. Delicious, sweet-as-cherry plums plucked straight from the tree, pears for perry-making and apples for juicing or cider-making. But it’s not just about the products. It’s about seeing nature in action in a way that we seem to have forgotten. School children come to the orchards to learn how fruit is grown and get hands-on with pruning and picking it. Making that connection between food and how it’s grown is key to educating future generations and can help us to combat food poverty in the future. This maybe a rural idyll, but we simply cannot afford to lose it.
Bushell & Peck cider
Working alongside Martin at the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust is David Lindgren, creator of Bushell & Peck cider. Made using unsprayed apples from the Trust’s and surrounding orchards, this cider is as far removed from your usual Strongbow as you can imagine. David has spent years developing styles of cider to suit different palates, with single variety ciders alongside more commercial ones. Bushell & Peck cider has always been popular with Warner’s customers and here are our favourites:
Fresh & Crisp: this cider is made from eating apples making it deliciously zingy and refreshing. A step up from apple juice – you’ve been warned!
Slow & Easy: this is David’s most commercial cider with an easy-drinking combination of eating and cider apples. This gives it a great balance of crisp tartness and rich flavour.
Rich & Mellow: cider apples give you this cider the typical tannic test of the West Country, complex, lingering flavours and some gentle astringency.
Available from Warner’s Supermarkets Upton-upon-Severn and online at bushelpeck.co.uk
