I work on a small, family run, fruit and veg farm in Kent. Our main product is apples . Most of the farm is apple and pear orchards, but we also grow and sell lots of soft fruit, along with the full spectrum of vegetables and salads, this is us here: https://chegworthvalley.com/
So when i am in the local supermarket, ( The Co-op in this case ) i always look out for what varieties of fruit and veg they sell, and where they come from: especially apples. At the moment, ( end of June 2020 ) my local supermarket stocks five varieties of apple, which include:
Braeburn and Granny Smith: from South Africa
Pink Lady: from Chile
Gala: from Brazil
All these varieties of apple, we grow here in the UK. The start of our growing season is six months behind countries South of the Equator but, we, in the UK, typically still have apples from our last harvest ( The Autumn/October)in cold storage, until the middle to end of June (or well beyond some years). On our farm we are still selling Braeburn picked last October. The late varieties of apple, like these, store very well. Our stored apples are nearly finished, but that still leaves only maybe four or five weeks without home-grown apples, where shops will need to import all they need (this year – 2020 – we had perfect stored apples right round till the first new apples). So contrast buying Braeburn apples that have been shipped nearly 6,000 (six Thousand) miles to the Co-op supermarket near our farm: to the ones we grow 2 miles away. (other supermarkets at the moment sell common apples we grow here, from New Zealand, that’s nearly 11, 500 miles away.)
Most of us are becoming more aware of our shopping habits, and the decisions of choice made on our behalves by large supermarkets. Our farm grows around 30 ( Thirty ) varieties of apple during the season, most once common – that you will never see in any supermarket . Mid season we will have around a dozen varieties of apples for sale at any one time – rather than the 5 or 6 you may find in any supermarket, and the difference in taste – and variety of tastes (sweet, aromatic, nutty, rich, crisp, tart, sharp… ) is striking. And we are just one farm, one of many small producers.
There are many people who have been trying to farm more sustainably, as-well as educate the general public about environmental issues, and sustainable living. One of the best pieces of advocacy i have read, for how ‘we can’ change to a more sustainable food system, was a piece about Irish Apple growers – written for the Irish Times by Manchán Magan. The words of one of the Irish farmers – who owns a farm much like the farm i work for, stuck in my head since then:
” There should be farms like ours near every town that has a population large enough to support it,” says Traas. “We’re doing this near Clonmel; there should be someone else with a similar set-up near Kilkenny, someone else near Limerick and Waterford, all growing apples, plums and other fruit for regular customers that come to buy locally, rather than from the supermarket… “
(and “near every town that has a population large enough to support” one, should be a Farmer’s Market. The two go hand in hand (win-win), and we as shoppers can help make this a reality )
Here is a link to that article in the Irish Times, written September 2016:
(the full text of the article is included at the end of this post, also) https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/how-do-you-like-them-apples-the-growth-of-an-irish-industry-1.2780423
Here in England, we still grow considerably more apples than in Ireland, but still a fraction of the quantity of apples many other European countries grow. In my home county of Kent there have been vast areas of orchards planted in the last ten years, so our capacity will improve every year, and coupled with new technologies, which allow us to store apples longer, with more storage capacity, we will soon be able to sell our home-grown apples right the way round, to the start of the next harvest – which we have never really been able to do before. Along with all-year round availability of UK grown apples, we should have the choice of variety during the season. Do we really want only five or six varieties to choose from throughout the year? For seasonal variety, we should all look to the small farms, growing – and keeping alive – our best traditional varieties of apples – for every taste, at a regional level for inspiration. And we should really expect this kind of variety and quality, not only in apples, but in all our produce. Why should we settle for a limited choice of the flown in, tasteless – same handful of varieties, all year round, when we can have a vast variety of local, seasonal, quality. Surely food is a central part of our culture and heritage – the very essence of ‘the good life’?
Below, by kind permission of the author, is the full text of the article from The Irish Times:
IRISH APPLE GROWERS
Manchán Magan
Our supermarkets are laden with apples from South Africa, New Zealand and France because we cannot produce good apples in Ireland. This is the general assumption, that our country is only suitable for growing crab and cooking apples, or at best a few mealy, brown-stained eaters that turn to mush within days.
To disprove this fallacy drop into the farm shop at Con Traas’ Apple Farm between Cahir and Clonmel where you are surrounded by 40 acres of the finest, blemish-free apples and plums hanging heavily off every tree. Since the early 1970s, Con and his father before him have been growing and selling over 15 different varieties of apples to the people of Tipperary. The orchard now produces 3 million apples a year and 60 different varieties, most of which are sold directly from the farm door.
“There should be farms like ours near every town that has a population large enough to support it,” says Traas. “We’re doing this near Clonmel, there should be someone else with a similar set up near Kilkenny, someone else near Limerick and Waterford, all growing apples, plums and other fruit for regular customers that come to buy locally, rather than from the supermarket. I’m delighted that Gilberts’ Orchard in Carlow have now opened a farm shop with this in mind.”
The Irish spend €100m annually on apples, 95% of which are imported, yet from the early Discovery and Katy varieties of late August, Ireland can produce apples right up until late November when the Jonagolds and Elstars ripen. These late season, slow-growers are ideal for cold-storage and keep well until the following June. So really, there is at most a 6-week period from early July to mid-August that Ireland needs to import apples. Why then are we growing so few?
“It’s simply a lack of expertise,” says Traas. “If I wanted to plant 50 acres of orchards today, it would be hard to find someone in Ireland with the expertise to manage it. I’d have to hire a manger from Holland or Italy or the United States. Previously there would have been experts in Teagasc who would have gone out to new orchards every month or two and given advice, but Teagasc simply no longer have the resources. It’s not a priority for them.”
An Agricultural Science degree is the most viable path to learning in Ireland says Traas: “but if a farmer wants to grow a few trees, he doesn’t want to go off to college for 4 years first. Yet, it’s vital as a basis, before getting any practical training.”
One of the few people to have successfully set up a profitable orchard in recent years without inherited land is David Llewellyn, who studied at Warrenstown Horticulture College and UCD, before serving an apprenticeship in Germany. In 1999, he established an orchard on rented land in North County Dublin, before buying a south-facing field near Lusk in 2002 where he set up an orchard and a small vineyard, with a perry pear orchard added later. Like Traas, he manages to make the business viable by selling directly at markets in Temple Bar, Dun Laoghaire and Glasnevin, rather than competing with low cost imports in the supermarkets.
Both Traas and Llewellyn have diversified into making apple juice, cider and apple vinegar to use up their excess and blemished fruit. Highbank Organic Orchard in Kilkenny have done likewise, where Rod and his wife Julie developed a new product, Orchard Syrup, similar to maple syrup but made from their own organic apples. Recently, they expanded into distilling cider to produce vodka, brandy and a single-estate gin. The Calder-Potts planted their orchard in 1969 on land acquired by Rod’s great-grandfather in the 19th century. They earned a viable income until Ireland joined the Common Market in 1974 and cheap imports flooded the market. “1979 was the last year we made a profit out of selling apples. In 1982, along with most apple farmers in Ireland, we grubbed our desert apple orchards.”
In 1994, Calder-Potts converted to organic farming and replanted. Highbank have now got 8,000 apple trees, grown bio-dynamically without the use of any chemicals and set amongst small lakes, woodland and various wildlife habitats to encourage as diverse an ecosystem as possible. Their apples are sold by Dennis Healy at various farmers’ markets.
Apple growing is on the rise throughout Ireland, with cider and apple juice producers in particular expanding their operations. The National Apple Orchard Census of 2012 recorded a 6% increase since 2007 to 46 growers, with 1,500 acres of orchard in the Republic of Ireland, which sounds impressive until one learns that Northern Ireland has 3,500 acres of mostly Bramley apple orchards – the majority of which get exported to Britain or are brewed into cider. Since the 2012 census Ireland’s orchards have increased significantly, with the Donegal juice manufacturer Mulrines currently planting 288 acres of dessert apples along the N7 motorway near Kill in Co. Kildare.
“We can’t grow oranges or mangoes here,” says Peter Mulrine, the managing director, “so, it makes sense to grow apples and save importing juice from the UK.” His company supplies much of the private label fruit juice consumed in Ireland and so they’ve a constant demand for good quality fruit. “Our investment will have started to pay off in three years, which is vital as one of the problems for most growers is that it is a 20 to 25 year investment. If the orchard doesn’t work you have a long time looking at it, and if the market changes you’re stuck.”
Mulrines planted 80,000 trees and by the end of next year hope to have 140,000 planted. “We used guys with experience for Herefordshire, and Dutch subcontractors to design and lay out the orchard. The idea is to manage it mechanically using the latest technology.”
Alongside large-scale producers, small back-yard orchards are also on the rise, with regular training courses provided by the likes of the Irish Seed Savers Association, which has managed to build up a collection of over 160 traditional native varieties of apples at their centre in Scariff, Co. Clare. There are also longer FETAC-accredited horticulture courses at the Organic Centre in Leitrim, Kinsale College and Teagasc’s Colleges in Kildalton and the National Botanic Gardens. “These courses are ideal,” say Con Traas, “if you are not seeking to grow commercially and don‘t need to maximise your yield or ensure absolutely no pest damage. You’ll get a good crop in a year that suits apples, though in other years you mightn’t get so much. It takes careful management to ensure a good crop every year, with annual pruning and removing buds and excess fruit in good years, so as not to over-exhaust the trees.”
While all this sounds positive and encouraging, the reality as anyone with an apple tree in their garden knows is infestations of canker, aphids, worms and blight. How do the commercial producers manage to stave off disaster?
Rod Calder-Potts of Highbank Orchard produces blemish-free apples without resorting to any fungicides, herbicides or chemical fertilisers, but conventional apple farmers are also tending to use less chemicals, largely due to pressure from increasingly concerned consumers.
“We use minimal intervention,” says Traas, “which is now the norm in horticulture – at least in Ireland – despite what people think. It is practically unheard of for tomatoes, strawberries or apples to be sprayed with an insecticide anymore. At the moment we have large numbers of earwigs in the orchard which are controlling aphids. There are also significant quantities of predatory mites which control other more damaging mites. We put out pheromone-baited traps to catch moths, rather than spraying for them.”
Traas never actively introduced the beneficial earwigs or mites, but instead managed the orchards in such a way as not to harm them. “It can be hard in the first year or two to get them to build up if you have been using a lot of chemicals, but once they are established, they look after themselves unless you do something stupid to kill them.”
To be sure, apple growing is no easy option – it would take enormous effort to train Ireland’s beef and dairy farmers to convert to fruit production. Long-term financial investment in land, trees and equipment is required, and most especially training and education.
“There is good reason why Ireland currently imports apples,” says Llewellyn, “they are cheaper to produce in warmer countries, and the huge scale allows multiples here to get whatever variety and size they want, whenever they want it. That said, two centuries ago Ireland’s orchard acreage was many times greater than what it is today and it stands to reason that the country would benefit from more well-trained, knowledgeable growers, located in the right soil and climate combinations, near to markets producing local fruit. People buy apples from me mostly because they are fed up with the bland tasteless imports in the shops. And there is no reason why my model couldn’t be repeated nationwide.”
COURSES/EVENTS
Establishing an Orchard 1-day course (Sun, 11th Sept) tomorrow at Irish Seed Savers, Scarrif, Co Clare Covers site selection, orchard layout, soil preparation, drainage, maintenance, health and disease, and choosing varieties.
‘Taste of the Orchards’ Tour, Sept 14, 15, 16 & 17th. Tasting and Juicing days with tours of the orchards and advice on best trees for disease resistance, suitable pollination partners, etc. http://www.irishseedsavers.ie
David Llewellyn Cider-making Course, Lusk Co. Dublin. Courses on Sept 16th or Sept 17th, full training and tastings with a free a canister of fermenting cider to take home and a copy of the “bible of craft cidermaking” www.llewellynsorchard.ie
Con Traas’ Farm Shop, Cahir, Co Tipperary is open March to November. Their camping and caravan site in the orchard operates May to September. www.theapplefarm.com
Highbank Orchard Organic Farm Shop and Distillery, Cuffesgrange, Kilkenny is open year-round. Visitors are welcome to picnic in the grounds. www.highbankorchards.com
Gilberts’ Orchard and Farm Shop, Quinagh, Carlow. Open Weds-Sat year-round for apples and their range of Apple Barrel juices. www.gilbertsorchard.com
Apple varieties grown and sold by Llewellyns Orchards, (in order of ripening)
Discovery Crisp, sweet and juicy, with a pronounced tanginess. An ‘old-fashioned’ flavour reminiscent of ‘Beauty of Bath.’
Rosette, rich red colouring streaked through its flesh. Very juicy. Birds are especially fond of it, so sell at a premium.
Worcester Pearmain, an old variety, flushed bright red. Crunchy texture and very sweet. From mid-September to mid-October.
Kerry Pippin, a very old Irish variety, small and greenish yellow, with some orange streaking on the sunny side. A delicate flavour and a tangy edge.
Tipperary Pippin, a red with an excellent balance of sweetness and acidity.
Norfolk Royal Russet, “the Most Delicious Apple In The World’ according to David Llewellyn. Sweet and aromatic, with a nutty texture and a creamy juiciness. Russet (rough-skinned) varieties have a richer flavour.
Egremont Russet, old English variety, sweet with a certain tanginess, and the typical nutty texture of russets.
Holstein Cox, similar to Cox’s Orange Pippin, but easier to grow in Ireland. Spherical, yellow apples, with an orange streaky flush. Exquisite flavour. From late-September until Christmas.
Elstar, a cross between Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie. Crisp, very juicy, very sweet. Available November until May.
Herefordshire Russet, golden yellow with a faint pink blush. Very juicy, aromatic, sweet and nicely tangy. Keeps well.
Wellant, a large dark red, russeted apple with a characteristic flavour; can be stored for 6 months.
Jonagold, the most commonly grown dessert apple variety in Ireland. Richly juicy. Firm and crisp when fresh; it loses some firmness in storage.