Gardening columnist Wally Richards wonders, through Thursday's gardenin page, if the growing of apple trees is still as popular as it was many years back.
It is in Southland, Wally, and that popularity is growing fast!
Here in the deep south, it's those very same varieties grown by our early European settlers that present-day home orchardists are seeking out and planting; 5-star Pippin, Norfolk Greening, Merton Russet, Keswick Codlin and dozens of other varieties that graced the orchards that flourished before the days of supermarket imports and cool stores. Wally will be pleased to learn too, that there are Southlanders driving the renewed interest in southern orchards - the Open Orchard team has collected and grafted as many of the old varieties as they could find on the region's farms and around its towns and have them for sale to anyone who wants to grow a heritage orchard. Many of our Southland schools have planted orchards of their own, with trees grafted from orchards in their own local area and 'sample' orchards of apples, pears and plums have been planted, the largest having over 300 heritage apple trees, in Riverton, Mataura, West Plains and Otautau. Apple orchards are not a thing of the past for Southlanders, Wally, they're a happening thing!
Robert Guyton
Riverton
4 comments:
" Keswick Codlin"
Is this the origin of the Codlin Moth?
I thought that for some time Anon, but it's 'codling' moth. I found this observation interesting:
"Most nourishment (the moth gets from inside of the apple) is obtained by feeding on the proteinaceous seeds."
They burrow into apples, and pears and eat away at the seeds inside!
The Keswick Codlin
"An old but ever-popular early-season English cooking apple.
Keswick Codlin
Keswick Codlin pre-dates the classic Victorian period of English apples. According to Victorian pomologist Robert Hogg writing later in the 19th century, it was first found growing as a seedling tree in a rubbish heap at Gleaston Castle near Ulverston at the southern tip of the English Lake District, in the 1790s. A local nurseryman from the nearby town of Keswick, John Sander, propagated it and helped establish it.
Keswick Codlin rapidly established itself as a very early season culinary apple with a good juicy acidic flavour. It readily cooks down to a sweet puree.
Keswick Codlin continues to be a popular garden variety to this day. Its success rests on two factors. Firstly its excellent flavour, early in the season when there is not much else about. Secondly, it is one of the more foolproof apple trees for the gardener, readily succeeding in damp climates with short growing seasons, and a reliable and usually heavy cropper.
Last updated 15 Jun 2011.
I have never seen Codlin(g)Moth written, but remember my father saying the moth was so bad one year in Hastings that the only way you could enjoy eating an apple was to eat it in the dark.
Ha! Extra protein though.
We have no codling moth in Riverton, presently. I think that's because of our very southern location and the wind that comes off the southern ocean and blows moths north, preventing them from setting up shop here. Long may that continue.
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