Make your garden as nice as pie with a good apple tree

Shirley Lanigan bemoans the years she wasted trying to nurture a miserable, inherited apple tree and is now seeking a replacement. Here, she offers tips for choosing an apple tree and on how to store a glut of the fruit

I have not been able to visit a garden recently without being sent home with apples – sometimes lots of apples. As far as the Irish apple is concerned, this is the season of plenty. For some, the word ‘plenty’ should be replaced by the more appropriate word ‘glut.’

And among the many divisions that parcel one half of the world from the other is the line that marks those who see ‘plenty’ off from those who see ‘glut’ in times of seasonal abundance of fruit or vegetables.

Those people who send us home from visits with bag of apples ranged out along on the back seat of the car are, I would guess, among the half that sees glut. The others, meanwhile, are happily, thriftily and busily storing up the surplus fruit for use later in the year. Good for them. It would do all us all good to join their ranks.

When offered lovely eating apples by a garden owner, or plums or cooking apples to bring home, etiquette dictates that you say, “Yes please.” A reply of “No thanks” will be met with “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure” will inevitably be followed by an “Are you really sure?” Keep life simple and just say, “Yes please.” These poor people are desperate. They have made as many apple pies as they can eat. The pork has been accompanied by copious amounts of apple sauce and yet still the apples are there, waiting to be eaten, hanging on the trees or lying about on the grass waiting for small boys to pick them up and throw them at windows or passers-by. They are making their owners unhappy.

Pots of cookers
So say “Yes please” and bring the bounty home with you. It is the right thing to do. I inevitably end up with lines of plastic pots of cookers sitting on the back seat of the car after most garden visits at this time of year. This is no complaint.

I garden in an old mid-sized town garden. Up until last year, it was home to an apple tree — and what a tree. It was a pathetic sight to behold, a scrawny and shapeless thing. It did nothing other than detract from its neighbours. It was an old tree of about fifty years and by the time I arrived to live with it, it was well past its best. Although trying to eat the rather tasteless fruit, it was hard to imagine that it could ever have had a period that could be called best.

Not knowing its name, I could not tell if it was an eater or a cooker and the taste did nothing to throw light on the matter. It seemed too bitter to be an eater yet it was no more impressive after cooking. It could just about be used in an apple tart if there were blackberries to bump up the flavour or if a great number of cloves were added to give it some punch.

I lived with it for 13 years, partly out of misplaced sympathy and a reluctance to knock any tree. Disposing of it there and then might have led to its immediate replacement and a decade of good apples since enjoyed. Instead, I tried to improve the situation with years of pruning and adding liberal amounts of compost to the ground around its roots.

After four years scowling at its ungainly shape, I made an attempt to beautify it. Some Clematis jackmanii was grown up against its trunk in the hope of producing something good to look at. This only met with partial success and the weight of the climber cannot have helped the miserable tree in its struggle.

In the end, a hard heart kicked in and I did what I should have done the first day I saw it. I chopped down the miserable specimen, putting it and its scabbed fruit out of their miseries. The area is now planted up with a mass of flowering phlox and a good rose that flowers all summer. It gladdens my heart every time I look at it.

A magnificent tree
But there is now no apple tree in the garden and a replacement is needed. In order to make up for the years of dull apples and ugly tree, the replacement needs to be a magnificent tree. A lot is expected of this tree and so time is being taken on the eventual choice. I cannot make up my mind as to what I want to plant.

A trip to the Irish Seed Savers in Scarriff, Co Clare in a few weeks will hopefully settle the problem. The Irish Seed Savers specialise in identifying, saving, growing and dispersing as many old Irish apple cultivars around the country as is possible. They want to encourage us to begin growing our own Irish apples again.

At one time, there were hundreds of Irish varieties to be found all over the island. The numbers have been dwindling fast over the past few decades and we are in danger of losing many interesting tasty and unusual apples to oblivion. The Irish Seed Savers are trying to stem the tide and turn it back. To date, they have rescued over 140 types of Irish apples from extinction.

They are a registered charity that can be joined. Membership subscriptions help them to further their work. But it is also possible to buy apple trees from them. I hope to have them help me choose a heritage tree that was bred in my particular part of the country and that suits the soil and local conditions around here. I hope to find a tree that that will produce delicious eating apples.

Pies, tarts and cakes
A really good cooker would be welcome, too. These will hopefully be trees that will produce apples that will keep well, right through the autumn and winter, for pies and tarts and cakes and everything else they might be needed for. They will also be adding to the diversity that our productive gardens have been losing for too long.

But that is a task for the next few months. In the meantime, there are apples that are being presented in bulk right now as gifts. They need to be dealt with. Here are a few pointers on storing apples. It should hopefully mean that those being sent home with big bags of apples can do so happily, knowing that they will be able to keep and use them at their leisure rather than in one frantic apple-clogged fortnight. But mostly it will ease the burden of the gardener with the heavily producing tree or trees who has, in the past, simply despaired rather than stored.

Soon find out
There are varieties of apple that store well and those that do not. Many people who own trees have no idea as to the name of their apples. Without this knowledge, they cannot find out whether their apples will store or not. If you do not know, take the chance and store the apples anyway. You will know soon enough.

The first job is to inspect the apples to be stored. It is important to separate perfectly sound apples from those with any blemishes, bruises, cuts or imperfections. Only perfectly sound apples store. Damaged fruit will spread rot throughout the whole batch, so sort them thoroughly. The old saying about one bad apple ruining the whole barrel is absolutely accurate, so be strict. Blemished fruit is perfectly good for immediate use. Just cut out the bruises and eat or cook.

Wrap each individually
Take the fruit to be stored and wrap each individually in a quarter page of plain black and white newspaper or unbleached tissue paper, twisting the parcel firmly at the top. Stand these parcels on trays with a small space between each individual. Use shallow, single-storey fruit boxes. The supermarkets are only too delighted to get rid of them. In addition, their sturdy ‘corner posts’ allow you to stack multiple trays on top of each other. If you can find the light wooden slatted fruit trays, this is even better as they allow air to circulate more thoroughly between the fruits and good circulation will allow for longer storage.

North-facing wall
Once stacked, the trays should be stored in a cool shed, outhouse or garage. If you have a spot on a north-facing wall, this will be the best of all. A small amount of damp will cause no problems and will even help the storage process. The main consideration to worry about is heat. Ripening happens as a result of the presence of ethylene and ethylene needs warmth. Heat and constantly fluctuating temperatures encourage the presence of ethylene and so brings on the ripening process. A temperature of between 30-40 degrees centigrade is perfect. Do not store apples in the same place as potatoes, as the potatoes will hasten the apples ripening. – Irish Medical Times