The National Trust has reported a bumper apple harvest from its Kent orchards, yielding a record 12 tonnes despite a drought and record-breaking hot summer. The conservation charity attributes the abundant crop to a combination of weather factors, including last year's wet conditions, a warm and dry spring, and plenty of sun this summer.
Although crops are ripening weeks earlier than normal, the Trust says pumpkins will still be good for Halloween with careful storage. The near-perfect growing conditions have also led to a surge in requests to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) to identify mystery apple varieties growing in domestic gardens and community orchards.
The RHS has received more than 500 mystery apples this month alone for analysis, significantly more than in previous years. Jim Arbury, RHS fruit expert, has uncovered finds including lemon pippin, a dual-purpose apple dating back to at least 1744, and sops in wine, a variety with pink-tinged flesh.
Other samples include oaken pin, a rare dessert apple native to Exmoor, and golden bittersweet, a historic cider apple variety. The charity is inviting the public to bring mystery apples to RHS gardens for identification at autumn events.
National Trust sites around the country are reporting bumper harvests, from Cotehele in Cornwall, where trees have produced thousands of apples weeks earlier than expected, to Erddig in Wales, where the vintage apple crop is on target for double its usual two tonnes. Pumpkins are also delivering a bumper harvest at places such as Buckland Abbey near Plymouth, with around 50% more squash and pumpkins than normal.
