Reinette d'Orleans: tasting the ultimate dessert apple with Barry Juniper

There's nothing like spending a few afternoons trespassing in orchards to clear the smoke of the city from your lungs! I have been missing-in-action doing a masters course in London, but now I'm back wandering the groves...


I had previously mentioned a mysterious dessert apple called the Orleans Reinette (or Reinette d'Orleans). Back in Cambridge, Professor John Parker, the then Director of the Botanic Gardens, had recommended this as the best apple he had ever tasted. Many others agree. Orleans Reinette was first described in 1776 and is now grown throughout Europe but it remains in Britain as something of a rarity. It has proven to be illusive to track down. With apple season fully underway, last Tuesday I tagged along to a filming event with one of the world authorities on apples in his own private orchard.


This is Barry in his orchard in Wytham in which he has collected around 130 different apple varieties. Barry is an Emeritus reader in plant sciences from Oxford University and author of 'The History of the Apple'. He is doing his thing for a Dutch film crew that are producing a series called 'Paradise' that is all about the future of food (it is the brainchild of a very interesting scientist, director and writer: Louise Fresco).


In 1929, the famous pomologist Edward Bunyard described how '...it seems to come from the Low Countries, where we first meet with it in 1776. Its brown/red flush and glowing gold do very easily suggest that if Rembrandt had painted a fruit piece he would have chosen this apple. In the rich golden flesh there is a hint of the Ribston flavour, much of the Blenheim nuttiness, and an admirable balance of acidity and sweetness which combine, in my opinion, to make the best apple grown in Western Europe....as a background for an old port it stands solitary and unapproachable.'


It's an unbelievable apple. (It stands solitary AND unnapproachable!) Really low acidity and fantastic subtle undertones of vanilla that emerge as you chew. It's also cracking with a mature (= runny) English goat's cheese a drop of Sauternes. Those slices in the background are Brownlee's Russet - notice how the Orleans Reinette does not go brown (oxidation) when its flesh is exposed to the air. Go out and find one!

Heavy machinary in the Charingworth orchards

Last Wednesday my neighbour John Langston brought his tractor to the orchards to help me do some grass mowing. It was such a beast that we couldn't take it between the trees but we managed to cut a few more open areas that were beginning to succeed to scrub. Flailing can be a destructive process, but it is probably the best way of dealing with large areas of really rough grass and brambles. For that afternoon at least, the crunching sound of the flail carried by the wind really was the sound of progress!

The lowest of these three 'before and after' shots shows the 'meadow area' at the back of the lower (1940s) orchard. It has always had a bad dock infestation that has made farming this patch impractical. However, I believe that chemical fertilizers have not been heavily used here and as a result there are already patches of Birdsfoot Trefoil and Meadow Vetchling that flourish in summer. Flailing will hopefully encourage these and prevent blackthorn, buddleia and poplar saplings from becoming dominant. I plan to seed some areas where the tractor has exposed soil with a wildflower mix and see whether anything establishes.

Here is a clearing in the 1920s orchard that we also flailed. I am planning to do some replanting in this area before Christmas. I am currently tempted by the idea of a couple of Blenheim Orange (likes clay) and an Orleans Reinette (fantastic eater, apparently) and perhaps some bittersweet varieites for cider. They have to be on M25 rootstocks though as I want them to grow BIG!

Mount Pleasant Orchard

Last Sunday morning I went to Mount Pleasant near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire for a second visit to Roger and Gudrun's fantastic orchard there. At ~4 acres, this non-commercial family orchard has around 220 standard fruit trees and a total of 93 identified varieties of apple, plum, pear and walnut. There is the full range of fruit tree ages, from those planted last year to the original trees from the first planting in about 1850. In other words, its a real treasure trove!

There are several features that make this orchard exceptional, and one of these is the abundance of very ancient apple trees. A sensitive regime of yearly pruning has allowed these trees to become 'over mature' and survive into old age still producing a few good fruit. The veteran tree features found in these trees hold great ecological value and they also develop fascinating twisted shapes. These trees are all Blenheim Orange and probably date from when the orchard was originally all this variety (with a few perry pears as well). It's a local variety that seems to like the heavy clay and makes for delicious eating.

This plum tree is quite bizarre- it is actually made up of two different varieties. The lower branches to the left and right are a wild form of Yellow Bullace (-apparently it is the first tree in the whole orchard to blossom, filling the air with a beautiful almond scent) and the top of the tree is a Blue Pershore. I think that technically you describe the Yellow Bullace as having been 'cuckolded'. This occurred when the Blue Pershore seeded itself in the original tree's crown and then grew down through its trunk.

This eating apple is called a Domino and is unusual on account of its hardness. The apples lie whole on the grass until well into spring and are an invaluable late food source for the overwintering fieldfare.

This is a Russian apple called Emperor Alexander, and one of Roger's favourites.

The illusive and mysterious Orleans Reinette. I have been told by the head of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens that this is best eating apple he's ever tried. Definitely worth a taster in a couple of months...

A multipurpose variety of apple that dates from Roman times called the Quoining. It was still producing until it toppled over this year, so the photos on the right show the tree in 2004 and the strange shape of the fruit. Roger took a graft from the remaining shoots but unfortunately the apples on that look more like a Bramley. Perhaps a second attempt will yield better results.

The orchard has a yearly prune where certain trees are taken in to balance them and minimise toppling or splitting. Recently one of the big original perry pear trees looked like it might split, so here are the before and after pruning shots. Even though it may look quite severe, the tree will quickly recover. This regime of continued maintenance has enabled so many of the trees in this orchard to reach a great age and remain in good condition.

These lumps in the foreground are ant hills of the Yellow Meadow Ant (Lasius flavus) . These ants need a well grazed sward to survive. The size of these ant hills indicates that this land has not been cultivated for a very long time.

The dead wood habitat provided by the orchard is phenomenal. Pruning offcuts are stacked in various places, both beneath trees and in more open areas along the orchard edge. This has provided a great range and abundance of decomposing wood habitats that will support a great diversity of invertebrates. It is a common misconception to assume that wildlife woodpiles must be damp and shaded for maximum benefit- dead wood that is dry and sun-warmed represents and equally valuable and endangered substrate. Gudrun says she can remember seeing stag beetles in the past and the trunk of this perry pear (photographed on the right) shows some evidence of quite large larval bore holes.

This picture says a lot about how well this orchard is managed. By replanting whenever gaps have appeared there is a full range of tree ages, something that is so often lacking in traditional orchards in Britain. Roger takes cuttings from exiting old trees and re-grafts them onto vigorous (M25) rootstocks ensuring they will develop into full size standard trees. This way varieties are preserved and the orchards future is planned for.