Local knowledge
Ask around....local knowledge and local experts are invaluable. Gardeners, orchard groups, horticultural societies and colleges, fruit growers and specialist nurseries may all be able to assist with identification. For names of organisations and individuals who may help you, see Common Ground’s orchards gazetteer – or their Community Orchards Handbook.
Apple Day, 21st October is an ideal opportunity to find out the name of an apple. Of the hundreds of events around the country, many offer an apple identification service on the day. Usually three sample apples with stems and leaves are requested to aid identification of a variety. Each year, Common Ground produces a list of Apple Day events being held around the country - available online at http://www.england-in-particular.info/cg/appleday/a-events.html.
Apple varieties thought to have been lost have been identified at Apple Day events, brought in from a garden tree by its curious owner. Grafts from rediscovered trees are often taken to propagate rare varieties locally. The White Quarantine turned up at Probus Gardens Apple Day in Cornwall in 1991; the Profit apple was recognised at Kingston Maurward, Dorset in 2001; the Gypsy King apple, last recorded in the 19th century was rediscovered at Church Stretton in Shropshire in 2004. What's in your garden?!
The identification of fruit has often been the starting point for surveys or maps of fruit trees in an area. Each year the organisation Orchards Live-North Devon have added further local varieties to their Devon Pomona, as a result of fruit identification on Apple Day, as have many other local and regional orchard groups.
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