Pick of the crop

HAPPY birthday, Bramley Seedling. This year, all of us cooks and chefs celebrate the bicentennial of our favourite cooking apple. Bet you didn’t know it’s 200 years since a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, planted an apple pip in her family’s Nottinghamshire garden. One of those apple pips emerged as a vigorous seedling around 1809.

A local butcher, Matthew Bramley, later bought the cottage and garden. His apple tarts must have caused something of a stir because local nurseryman Henry Merryweather came looking for a cutting from the tree. Matthew agreed, on condition the slow-growing apple would bear his name – hence the name Bramley Seedling, today beloved of home cooks and chefs alike.

Recently, I travelled all the way to Ulster to celebrate with the Bramley Apple Growers, who had come together to put on a big celebratory bash during apple blossom season. You can’t imagine how lovely it was to drive through the Armagh countryside, when the orchards were in full bloom, covered with pink and white blossom. There were beautiful old trees with gnarled branches, carefully pruned to allow light into the centre and still producing apples after 40 years, but also newly planted orchards to meet the upcoming demands.