[Fenland Girl]

Just listened to a really good programme on Radio 4 about 'The Apple Detective', a guy who finds very old and rare apple varieties. You can listen to it on the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/opencountry.shtml

[pepper]

The Northern Fruit Group I have just joined apparently do this too and have discovered old apples they thought were extinct (is that the right term)? I went to one of their Apple Days and tasted a number of apples I'd never heard of before - they were delicious. One such apple they had just found in the Bishop of Ripon's orchard because he had donated the area to a group who works with people with special needs and they had brought in the Apple Detectives to name the trees there.

[mkhenry]

Just listened to a really good programme on Radio 4 about 'The Apple Detective', a guy who finds very old and rare apple varieties. You can listen to it on the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/opencountry.shtml

In the dim and distant past people interacted with others who lived within a horses easy days riding,approx 15miles.  So their world was about a 30 mile radius.
Tools had different names within the circumference of this circle,and even the way Saints days were celibrated were offen different to those of the next village beyond the 15 miles.

Apple trees in one area would be grown by lets say the Vicar and in that 30 mile radius it might be called the Ref Wilson Pippin.
Eslewhere that same Apple tree grown by the important local family might be called the Simon Pippin and so on.  This very local naming being repeated all over the country.

This meant that there were 1000s of apples all with different names that in fact might only be 100 actual different types.Each with its own local ID.

This has made the work of these detectives very hard indeed.

[sweet nasturtium]

That's very interesting.  I wonder if there's any way they can identify them genetically?  
I'm sure Mushroom can help with this one...
 

[WG.]

Thanks for that Henry - very good.

[mkhenry]

That's very interesting.  I wonder if there's any way they can identify them genetically?  
I'm sure Mushroom can help with this one...
 

Yes they can and do all the time.
But can you imagine how much time was needed and the info input required in the early days just to establish how one apple moved up and down the country,with a different name in each district.

On a visit to a rellie up north it was not unusual to take plants and fruit cuttings as a prezzy.
Once established,and this could take many seasons,cuttings etc might be given to local friends who would in turn pass it on to others in a never ending 15 mile radius.  

A tree by then may have been given so many names that ID without genetics would be almost impossible.

These hunters have a vast bank now to draw on,but I bet they have many many disapointments.

[richyrich7]

Thinking of apples 2009 is the 200th year anniversary of the bramley.

I only know that thanks to T&M trying to sell me one  

[gobs]

And the original tree is still fruiting isn't it?

[shaun]

And the original tree is still fruiting isn't it?

how do you know its 200 years old without cutting through the trunk and counting the rings  :roll:  

[gobs]

I don't, someone writing an article about it a couple of years back seems to claim.

[mkhenry]

And the original tree is still fruiting isn't it?

how do you know its 200 years old without cutting through the trunk and counting the rings  :roll:  

Not sure Shaun but I know one thats 103 years 9 months 5 days and 4 hours old.

I know this because when I moved in to this Bungalow I was told by my the estate agent that it was 100 years old and that was 3yrs 9mths 5 days and 4 hours ago.    

[shaun]

dont believe those estate agents henry    

[mkhenry]

dont believe those estate agents henry    

They showed me around some rough houses Shaun.

I arrived at one and he said "Here is the sofa nice colour,and over here is the gas cooker.   Now shall we take a look inside :?: "  

[gobs]

There are some stories that are actually true, just asking, so I assume you don't know much about it then, do you?

[shaun]

There are some stories that are actually true, just asking, so I assume you don't know much about it then, do you?

who me ?