Apple day

Sun 26 October 2014

Botanic Garden

The motto of Apple Day is 'Look beyond the Braeburn' and at its core - pun fully intended – is the opportunity for visitors to ‘try before you buy’ over thirty different varieties of apples, including many seldom sold and heritage varieties, all locally grown.

The Apple-tasting Tent will be full of the tangy aroma of the autumn apple harvest, and the team is confident of sourcing a wide range from russets, cookers and crisp Cox to dessert apples for storing.

The Apple Edibles Tent on the Main Lawn is back, even bigger than before, and will feature jams, jellies, juices and beverages of all sorts made by local producers. The choice has been expanded to include some new apple-complementary exhibitors, such as Tom’s Cakes, the Cambridge Cheese Company and the Cambridge Cookery School.

Experts from the East of England Apples and Orchards Project (EEAOP) will
be on hand offering a pruning and care advice service, as well as a display of Cambridgeshire apple varieties and rootstocks for autumn planting. Visitors are encouraged to bring along apples from home (at least two to three apples from each tree, please) for identification by the team, who are fervently hoping that citizen science in action will bring a lost heritage variety to light.

The Cambridge Community Collection will also be presenting their unique plan to create a publicly accessible orchard of 1400 varieties of native apple tree stretching from the edge of the city to the heart of Cambridge and they are looking for your help in planting the apple trees along footpaths, cycle routes, roads and in pocked of open space.

For younger visitors there’ll be apple trails, crafts and storytelling at our Apple Station, plus Garden staff will be leading tours of apple-related plants in the collections, including the lovely crab apples that bring jewel-coloured baubles to the autumn garden.

Cost: £7.50, £6.95, free