Apple Day - Celebrating UK Apples
Healthy, Tasty and Good for You: The Apple a Day Way to Good Health
Nov 5, 2007
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician who gave his name to the Hippocratic oath, and known as the father of medicine, was the man who inspired this famous phrase over two thousand years ago. He believed, correctly as it turned out, that apples were good for your health.
Apples and Health
Apples contain Vitamin C as well as contributing roughage to the diet. An apple is an excellent way of getting one of the recommended five fruit and vegetables a day into the daily intake of food. One of the best apple sources of Vitamin C is the French ‘camille blanc’ which contains the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C in a single fruit. In fact, it is a better source of Vitamin C than many oranges.
There are many types of apple available each with its own distinctive flavour, texture and aroma. The following are a few of the over two thousand varieties available from the UK.
- Blenheim Orange: A very large apple, at its best around Christmas time, which goes very well with English cheeses such as Cheddar, Cheshire or Lancashire.
- Bramley: The quintessential British cooking apple, providing a tartness to offset the sweetness of the sugar used in the apple stews, apple crumbles and apple pies that it has graced since its development in 1910. One hundred years later, 100,000 tons a year are produced.
- Cox’s Orange Pippin: This apple was developed in Buckinghamshire in the early nineteenth century. It is sweet and very crisp and juicy and makes up more that half of UK desert apple production.
- Discovery: A relative newcomer developed in 1950. This apple has a distinctive perfume and a juicy bite. Children especially like this early season apple.
- Eggremont Russet: A nutty, dry apple first developed in Sussex which is best eaten during its short season in the months leading up to Christmas. This apple does not suffer being preserved using inert gases very well. The russet apple has a unique flavour which goes very well with cheese and chutney.
Apple Day
Over the years, the development of the supermarket chains with their significant buying power and their ability to dictate producer-behaviour has led to a decline in the availability of different types of apple. It is well worth seeking out and buying unusual varieties, which are now seeing a slight comeback.
As part of this, each 21 October since 1990 has been designated ‘Apple Day’, the purpose of which is to promote the many varieties of this healthy, tasty and re-emergent fruit.
