Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Dispatches from the North West

“Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness”: so goes the well known first line of John Keats’ poem ‘To Autumn’. A little over 200 years since that poem was written we still marvel at the wonders and beauty of the season. Here in the Vale of Clwyd in the far north of Wales mists are rarely seen – in fact Team Terroir Gogledd Cymru/North Wales find it difficult to recall the last time it was truly misty or foggy in the Vale. To the east over the mountain range where north east Wales meets the Cheshire Plain the towns, villages and countryside are frequently shrouded in mist at this time of year but the fresh winds blowing across the Vale from the moors and mountains to the west ensure that any would-be mists are rapidly dispersed.

But fruitfulness we have in abundance. And not just fruit but also seeds and berries in profusion. It can be said that the autumn of 2022 has been truly bountiful, more so than for many years.  The hedgerows are filled with blackberries, sloes, bullace (the latter two excellent for fruit gin connoisseurs), hips and haws. The trees are laden with acorns, rowan berries, crabapples, beech mast and chestnuts. Similarly the trees in our orchard have produced most plentifully and the fruit harvest has kept this part of Team Terroir fully occupied throughout much of October.

Orchards are not a dominant feature of the landscape of north Wales (unlike the vast areas of fruit trees in some English counties) but they do, in a quiet and discrete way, occur frequently in association with many farms and smallholdings. Small is beautiful as they say. Typically an orchard here can range from just five or six trees up to maybe a dozen or more but rarely larger. The small vernacular cottages may only have the space for one tree but growing fruit for self-sufficiency rather than any commercial reason is very much the tradition here. This is reflected in the fairly frequent occurrence of the Welsh word Perllan, often mutated to Berllan, in local farm and other place names. Examples include Ty’n y Berllan (house in the orchard), Cae Berllan (orchard field) or even Berllan Surgery in Denbigh suggesting it’s on an old orchard site.

Sadly many of these orchards are in serious decline with numerous dead and dying trees. Their contribution to biodiversity has been recognised for some time and traditional orchards were given priority Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) status in 2007. Much more information can be found in the Traditional Orchard Habitat Inventory of Wales produced by Natural Resources Wales (https://cdn.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/media/685908/eng-report-018-traditional-orchard-habitat-inventory-of-wales-2014.pdf).

 Our original orchard (see images above), which we think dates from around 1900, contained five apples, three pears and two plums. A typical mixture. What is of particular interest, of course, is the composition of types. Two of the apples are straight forward gnarled old Bramleys. One consistently crops heavily whilst it’s equally healthy immediate neighbour normally refuses to produce a single apple – this year being no exception. Very occasionally it concedes and yields maybe 10 or so fruits and then reverts to its intransigent state of fruitlessness. One apple tree succumbed to Armillaria (honey fungus) at an early stage and two of the remaining apples are of unknown varieties.  Very productive they are too but we can only guess at their origin. With that in mind and aware of the need to conserve heritage varieties we have taken cuttings and grafted them onto rootstock. The other trees are a couple of pear varieties, a yellow plum which died recently and a Denbigh plum which is slowly disintegrating with each successive storm. The latter is of great interest though as it is the only plum variety native to Wales and now enjoys Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. It therefore stands alongside such wonders as Cornish Clotted Cream, Jersey Royal Potatoes and West Wales Coracle-caught Salmon! (https://businesswales.gov.wales/foodanddrink/how-we-can-help/new-uk-geographical-indication-gi-schemes-0/vale-clwyd-denbigh-plum-pdo). There are now a number of projects the length and breadth of Wales aimed at identifying and propagating heritage varieties of all fruit trees and encouraging the establishment and restoration of orchards.

To these trees we have added a couple of damsons and two more Denbigh plums as our original tree is in rapid decline. Anxious to ensure long term continuity we found a small area in the old paddock to plant more fruit trees.So the ‘new orchard’ was born (images above). Starting in 2008 with around 15 trees, mainly apple (including Worcester Permain, Cox, Red Falstaff, Russetts, and James Grieve) but also a plum and three Morello cherries (the latter having been disappointingly unsuccessful) the growth rate was phenomenal and most started to yield within a couple of years.

Above left and centre: Red Falstaff - small tree but consistently big crop Above right: Russett - all round versatile favourite

Two trees are of special note being North Wales heritage varieties. The first is the Enlli or Bardsey apple originating from a single tree on Ynys Enlli/Bardsey Island off the extreme North West tip of the Welsh mainland. More on this at www.bardsey.org  which describes how the apple came to be ‘found’ as well as lots about this fascinating but remote island. The other tree of note is the Anglesey Pig’s Snout/Trwyn Mochyn Ynys Mon. So called because of its tapered and angular shape broadly reminiscent of a pig’s snout albeit rather greener! There is more on this at https://treborth.bangor.ac.uk/welsh-orchard.php.en along with descriptions of other Welsh heritage varieties growing at the Bangor University botanic gardens.

Above left: a cluster of Enlli/Bardesy apples Above right: the distinctively shaped Trwyn Mochyn Ynys Mon/Anglesea Pig’s Snout - crops late, keeps well, excellent baked or in pies

Fast forward nine years and the North Wales Wildlife Trust have embarked on a project to propagate and establish heritage fruit trees. We referred earlier to the typical farm orchard so often in decline. This project attempts to reduce that decline and foster better care and management of orchards and the attendant biodiversity value.

The Trust collected cuttings from unusual, maybe unique, varieties and grew them on. In many cases they didn’t know the names of the varieties so developed their own nomenclature. This consisted of a series of traditional Welsh girls’ names. Then, with the Trust overburdened with little trees needing secure homes, we were duly offered a number of young plants. So we acquired Myfanwy, Catrin, Angharad, another Enlli, several Denbigh plums and, slightly bizarrely, a Warner’s King (right) whose origins are in Kent. www.gardenappleid.co.uk 

The importance of fruit trees and orchards for their wildlife value cannot be over-stated. Not just the trees themselves but their flowers for early pollinators, buds for finches, fruit for birds and butterflies (red admirals love fallen fruit) and the tall vegetation beneath. One tree or many trees – they all contribute significantly to biodiversity.

Next week is all about consuming fruit!

All images © T Thompson