Apples Galore

Back in my parents’ day, long before supermarkets were invented, in addition to the grocery and fruit and veg shops, there were mobile grocery vans whose owners would come and park outside the house and supply basic essentials.

This of course was a boon in remote rural areas. One such gentleman with a van where we lived was a  Mr Balderstone  (always “mister”) I never found out if he had a first name, was affectionately known as the “midnight wanderer” mainly because he worked so very late into the night on his rounds.

It was a useful service, but with limited choice of products. For example:-

“Do you have apples?”

“Yes”

“What sort?”

“Both eaters and cookers!”

And that was it!!

On a recent “Apple Day” earlier this year I learnt that in the UK there are over 2000 varieties of apples. In current commercial production that figure drops to around 250, but in case you are worried about a lack of choice I am told that world wide there are over 7000 varieties.

I think we do still rather take apples for granted and I was surprised to see how many different types of the fruit are grown in East Anglia.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” that was the old saying. Some truth in it – or so I am informed. Apples are low in sugar, high in fibre and high in something called malic acid (that was something my biology teacher taught me – and I was impressed !) These days less so once I learnt that “malic” is derived from the Latin malum – the name for an apple.

Someone complained that there was a lot of chat in last week’s blog, so I will leave you simply with the pictures of an apple day. If you squint hard at some of them you can see where many of these varieties come from.

I think we’re back to the soil next week. Keep looking for the rain, nothing much is growing in my garden. Even the apple tree is beginning to shrivel.