Restore your orchard using traditional apple varieties with a difference!

Ever thought that supermarket apples have become bland and boring?  Well this is your chance to truly taste the difference by planting one of your ‘5 a day’ in your own back garden or orchard thanks to the Herefordshire Council Fruit Tree Kit Scheme.

This year’s scheme, which sources old fruit varieties many of which were first developed by local fruit producers, includes some tasty dessert apples – Bakers Delicious, Bloody Ploughman and Sandlin Duchess as well as some more exotic flavours from King Coffee and Winter Banana.

The trees will be on sale at Queenswood Country Park, Dinmore Hill from 10am – 3pm on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th November.

Now in its 8th year, the Fruit Tree Kit scheme aims to encourage the restoration and regeneration of local orchards with traditionally grown local or old varieties.  It is a great way to source these rare varieties and keep the bud-stock growing for future generations to propagate and enjoy.

James Bisset, Principal Countryside Officer said “Apples produced on a mass-scale for supermarkets have become fairly bland in flavour and you may not have realised just how bland until you have tasted a dessert apple picked fresh from the tree in your orchard or garden!  Each variety has its own distinct taste many surprisingly tangy and even ‘sherberty’ – a real treat for the taste buds!

“This year for something a bit different I have included the Worcester variety ‘King Coffee’ which was first exhibited in 1934.  When ripe it really does have a distinct aroma of freshly brewed coffee!

“Winter Banana is another of this year’s exotic apples, this not so local variety was originally raised in Indiana in 1876 and is guaranteed to cause confusion when you bite into an apple that tastes just like a banana!”

The kits which include a tree supplied as a ‘1 year maiden’ along with a tree tie cost just £9.00 each, whether you purchase those budded on to M25 vigorous rootstock suitable for orchards or those on M26/M9 rootstock, which results in 10ft garden sized trees.

A leaflet with more info on all the varieties available can be downloaded from www.herefordshire.gov.uk/Fruittrees and you can pre-order your trees in advance by contacting James Bisset Tel: 01568 798341 email: jbisset@herefordshire.gov.uk

All trees must be collected from Queenswood on the weekend of the 24th and 25th November – we hope to source some other fruit and nut trees that will only be available that weekend on a first come, first served basis.

Queenswood Country Park can be reached by taking the A49 north from Hereford – follow the brown signs on Dinmore Hill.