Gatherings

Our orchard is having something of an off year. We chose the hottest day of the year to look around and see what we could find among the early and mid season varieties. Things are not entirely bleak, and here is a selection of what we came back with. I wouldn't call it mellow fruitfulness, but perhaps 'steamy gleanings'

Clockwise from the top, William Crump are a dessert apple bred in the 19th century by the eponymous Worcestershire gardener. They are a cross between the much better known Cox's Orange Pippin and Worcester Pearmain (but you could cross those two a thousand times more and still not produce an apple similar to Willian Crump - that's how it is with apples). In a better year they would be more balanced towards red and the colour would be much more crimson. The flesh is strikingly yellow and intensely flavoured

The next variety I call Crispin, which is how it was marketed in UK, but it is Japanese in origin, bred in 1949, and there it is called Mutsu. It is dual-purpose - it can be cooked straight from the tree, but rapidly loses its acidity and becomes a dessert apple after a week or two. One of its parents is Golden Delicious and you can see the family resemblance. For a while, UK producers saw it as a good modern apple, but it is too fickle to satisfy supermarkets and has become a niche variety. We have it by accident - we ordered something else but, when it started bearing apples, this is what we got!

Doyenné du Comice (usually sold as just Comice in UK) pears originated in the Loire valley in the mid 19th century and is one of the best-known dessert pears in the world. At one time, any greengrocer in the country would have sold Comice, but they are increasingly difficult to find

Epicure are one of many once-common varieties bred by the Laxton brothers of Bedford in the early 20th century. The irregular green-yellow and bright red stripes on the skin are particularly attractive, and a big contrast with creamy flesh. They have a distinctive long stalk. They are another cross produced from Worcester Pearmain

Concorde pears are a modern variety (if you regard 1977 as modern!) bred by East Malling research centre in Kent - a charitable trust set up after WWI to improve crop plant breeding, which worked in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1960s and 70s. The variety is a cross between Comice and the equally well known Conference. It was an attempt to get the best of both varieties in a single fruit but, in truth, it is much more similar to Conference