We are about to become the proud owner of some rare breed apple trees. We don't know what rare breeds yet. We just remember the current owner of Hollow Barn talking enthusiastically and knowledgably about the selections he had made when he laid out the orchard that is soon to become ours. He'd been tracking things down. He seems to be a man who knows a lot about fruit.
It turns out that there is a very great deal to know. I sort of had a vague sense that there might be the 4 or 5 varieties you see in the shops. Then 4 or 5 more rarer ones. And a couple of lesser spotted even rare than that ones.
Nope.
West Dean is the sort of place where people who know a lot about horticultural things congregate. Its a splendid and wonderful place. I must say I rather covet its cottage garden. There is no doubt that this is a place where greenhouses have been done properly. They are vast and Victorian and lovely. Even the cold frames are massive. And the greenshouses don't just contain tomatoes. They contain a vast selection of tomato varieties. All of which seem to have been fed on whatever they were feeding the vegetables in Sleeper. Just by way of comparison I would guesstimate that the average height of my tomato vines this year was about 3.5 feet. I would guesstimate that the average height of their vines was about 12 feet. That is a pretty fine endorsement of a Victorian greenhouse.
I digress. Today we are talking about apples.
There may be not that much talking. I have discovered that I do not know very much about apples.
I may have mentioned that at West Dean they do things properly. The other weekend they did apples properly. The Apple Affair is their apple weekend. It turns out that there are a lot of rare breed apples. Really a lot. This has raised the excitement about Hollow Barn to a whole new level. What will our trees be? Will we have a Knobby Russet? If only we had some apples from them already we could have brought them here to be identified by the many apple experts that were on hand doing a kind of antiques roadshow for apples. Perhaps they will not be that rare at all and we will have make use of one of the many suppliers who specialise in this sort of thing. An apply future beckons.
