All Hail the Mighty Apple!

There’s a slightly sweet, mainly sharp, slightly acidic smell in the air today. It sounds acrid but it’s quite wonderful. It’s the unmistakable scent of the apple harvest.

Since moving to Tenbury Wells, the little market town where Worcestershire meets Shropshire and Herefordshire, my appreciation for this humble fruit has grown a zillion fold.

Our garden is surrounded by orchards. In fact pretty much everything around here is surrounded by orchards. Apples are synonymous with the place. Queen Victoria reputedly called Tenbury her ‘little town in the orchard.’ There‘s even an ‘Applefest’ here every October to celebrate this little fruit, with stalls, folk music and stick-wielding morris dancers (a personal favourite for obvious reasons, see above).

Later in the year comes the Wassailing, the Anglo-Saxon tradition of blessing the orchard, via a good knees up, to ensure a bountiful harvest the following year. All generally accompanied by more fabulous headgear.

Being surrounded by so much apple-based goings on does make you start to look at things a little differently. It’s practically a masterclass in practising gratitude.

Simple yet iconic, the apple is so symbolic that it conjures a million images from biblical temptations, love, health and wisdom to the passing of time, legacy and life. Ok we’re probably not thinking all this as we crunch our granny smith whilst checking our hair and waiting for our next zoom call to kick in (just me?) but I know I definitely get a wave of all this and more when I pull an apple from the tree and eat it there and then.

It’s for this reason that growing an apple tree has got to be one of the most satisfying, and grounding things to grow. Sure tomatoes are great, a fresh pea from a pod is weirdly uplifting, but an apple brings with it so much more.

And what’s better is there’s an apple tree for just about everyone. Espaliers and fan-trained trees not only look beautiful but take up minimal space as they hug a sheltered wall. Step-overs create characterful, gnarly boundaries or partitions. Apples on dwarfing rootstocks can grow very happily in containers while if you have the space, an orchard is a thing of real wonder.

So if you’re thinking what to plant this Autumn, may I put in a good word for the apple? You may just be surprised where that first bite takes you.

How d’ya like them apples? Why not share and spread the seasonal love?