The annual celebration of the apple takes place throughout the UK in October. It’s a great opportunity to try different varieties of the fruit, enjoy local ciders or juices at one of the many events held across the country. Fran from Lubera has her countdown to National Apple Day.
Part of the apple family, the fruits of the quince are used to produce the traditional jelly. However, unlike an apple the fruit is much harder and has to be sliced to be eaten. The growers at Wilkin and Son in Tiptree check the quince on a weekly basis to see if they are ready to be picked as Andrey Ivanov told Ken Crowther.
Mark Rowland could not find a tomato variety he really enjoyed so set about breeding his own concentrating entirely on flavour. The end result was so successful they were persuaded to market it, setting up Gourmet Genetics in 2011. They have gone on to develop other varieties of tomato and now also breed chillies and pepper as he told Ken Crowther.
Organic gardener, television and radio presenter Bob Flowerdew is a big fan of soft fruits and has been busy harvesting. The raspberries are almost over, but his hybrid boysenberry a cross between a raspberry and blackberry fruits throughout the season as he explained to Ken Crowther.
The Wilkin family have been growing a number of different fruits at their Tiptree farm since the 1800s. Andrey Ivanov the Farm Manger met up with Ken Crowther in one of the polytunnels to talk about their method for growing a successful crop of raspberries for their preserves and gin liquer.