Gallery: Allotment Apples, Early Autumn 2026 Edition

Down on the allotment last week, I took advantage of a break in the hugely welcome light rain to wander around my apple trees and take a few photos of the baker’s dozen¹According to Esther Copley in The Housekeeper’s Guide (1838) “N.B. A baker’s dozen is always fourteen.” that have actually produced fruit this year. As I mentioned last month, I’ve had rotten luck with codling moth this year, aided and abetted by the hot, dry summer, which is why I only a limited selection of my trees have produced apples that I can still look forward to picking this Autumn.

Here they are, including one honourable mention for a tree that has already been picked clean already, as its apples were ripe back in August.

Belle de Boskoop? Blenheim Orange?

The apple pictured below is growing on a spindle-trained tree that’s labelled ‘Blenheim Orange’ – the tree was grafted with a scion from a stepover that I had to remove a couple of years back because it was far too vigorous – but I also grafted a ‘Belle de Boskoop’ at the same time. And looking at the pic below, I think I’m seeing an unripe Belle, rather than a Blenheim, no? The tree that I do have labelled ‘Belle de Boskoop’ hasn’t fruited this year, so I’ll have to wait a year or two to work out whether a simple label-mix-up has occurred, or something more mysterious.

Whatever variety it turns out to be, it’s a handsome-looking apple, with nice, even russeting, on what I expect will be a golden yellow base when it finishes ripening up. Can’t wait to try it.

Egremont Russet

A classic, Victorian-era English russet. Still my wife’s favourite apple variety, although I’m expanding the range of russets on the plot to around 20 different varieties of either full russets, or part-russets, so she might find one she likes even more in years to come. In the meantime, this particularly fine specimen definitely has her name on it.

Gibbon’s Russet

A late Victorian variety from Cork, Ireland, recorded as both a dessert and cider apple. When this tree fruited last year there was hardly any russeting on its fruits, and I thought I might have been picked up a mislabelled scion, or mixed it up myself, back when I grafted the tree. But there is a slight trace of russeting on this year’s apples, and they are a pretty good match for the example photos on FruitID.com, so I guess it’s just a case of it being a not-very-russety russet.

The N.F.C. says “picking time: late August”, so I tried one of these two apples just after taking the photo. It tasted… odd. Not unpleasantly odd, but with a slightly vinegary acid note to it, so I can see why it might have been used for cider-making. I’ll try to hang on to the other one, so I can try it a bit later in the season, see if any more sugars develop.

Herefordshire Russet

A relatively modern variety, developed in the mid 1970s and introduced in the mid 1990s. Absolutely delicious, with an incredibly fresh, slightly citrusy flavour, and lots of juice. Not ready until the end of the month, so a couple of weeks of anticipation yet.

Howgate Wonder

The classic giant cooker, sheer size-wise the winner of our Champion Apple every year since I planted the stepover tree on which they grow:  771g in 2022, 646g in 2023, 708g in 2024 and a whopping 822g in 2025.

Somehow I don’t think we’ll see a record-breaker this year, the droughty summer will definitely have held them back, but I’m still looking forward to picking and baking / stewing a dozen or so of these beauties in November.

Keswick Codlin

An August-picking, dual-purpose apple, so I’ve already had most of the crop from our two ‘Keswick Codlin’ trees, but this one fruit is still hanging on, not quite ripened to its full golden yellow.

When properly ripe they have a delicious, lemon-sherbet acid zing to them, and they cook down to a really nice puree as well.

Kidd’s Orange Red

A very tasty variety, of New Zealand origin, that’s just over a hundred years old. Just the one apple this year, on a relatively young cordon tree. It’s ended up wedged in against a support post, but at least that should keep it safe whilst it finishes ripening for the next few weeks.

Merton Russet

This is the first ‘Merton Russet’ fruit I’ve seen in the flesh, having taken scions from a cordon tree at work that hasn’t fruited in the two and a half years I’ve been there. A 1920s cultivar, raised at the John Innes Horticultural Institute, Merton, and by the looks of it, a possible parent of ‘Herefordshire Russet’?

The N.F.C. Database says it won’t be ready until mid-October, so I’ll have to wait a while to see what this one tastes like.

Norfolk Beefing

Ah, the noble ‘Norfolk Beefing’! Subject of my major research obsession (which reminds me, I really must be getting on with writing up the next chapter) and a damn fine cooker.

This spindle-trained, air-potted tree is doing better than I thought it would after this summer’s brutal conditions. I must have managed to water it regularly enough – not a problem now it’s started raining again – because there are around a dozen apples on it, and they look to be in pretty good condition. Fingers crossed for picking later in the year.

Nutmeg Pippin

This cordon tree has been producing fruit for a couple of years now, and rather tasty they are too. Perhaps not as spicy as their name might suggest, but these smallish apples have a good, complex flavour that I’m looking forward to revisiting once they’ve ripened up a bit next month.

Pitmaston Pine Apple

This small, golden, lightly russeted apple is a firm favourite with myself, my wife, and my colleagues at work. Personally, I don’t think it tastes of pineapple – as I mentioned when I did a deep-dive into the origins of the ‘Pitmaston Pine Apple’ recently – but rather has a lightly spicy, nutty, lightly honeyed flavour that really is rather delicious.

I’ve already picked a fair few of these beauties, rather than risk them being bird-pecked before I get to them, even though they’re still a bit under-ripe. They’re being scoffed as soon as they finish ripening up, and I’m enjoying every mouthful.

Rosemary Russet

This is the actual ‘Rosemary Russet’, a scion of which I was kindly supplied with my my mate Steve down in the Cotswolds, rather than the mis-labelled ‘Rosemary Russet’ which we have at work, that I reckon is actually a ‘Gravenstein’.

This tree fruited in 2024, but I think it had an off-year in 2025, and I have to admit I can’t remember quite what it tasted like. I’ll have to a make an effort to pay it proper attention when it ripens up next month and see what I think of it.

Tydeman’s Early Worcester

My very favourite early-season apple so far. Fresh, flavourful, incredibly juicy and not at all insipid and dull, as one or two other early varieties can be (‘Beauty of Bath’, I’m looking at you).

I have a nicely mature and production double-cordon and a spare tree in a pot which also produced a couple of good apples back in August. All gone now, scoffed with delight.

Winter Gem

Another 1970s variety, this one was raised by the legendary Hugh Ermen. It’s a rather tasty, late-ripening apple that was still hanging on the tree well into December last year, long after everything else had been picked, even ‘Howgate Wonder’.

This year they are coming along nicely, and although we’ve lost a few to early drop and codling damage, I think we should have a dozen or so to look forward to, later in the year.

There we are. This year’s potential harvest has been greatly reduced by the harsh summer conditions and somewhat excessive codling moth damage that has resulted, but there are still some good-looking, and hopefully great-tasting, apples to look forward to picking in the next few months. Around a dozen or so trees at work have also been reasonably productive this year – they’re standard trees, so on a much larger volume scale – and we’ll start picking in earnest from those in the next week or three, all being well.

How about you? Are you having a good harvest season? A poor one? How does it compare to the glut year of 2025? Are you actually relieved that your trees aren’t quite so over-productive? What autumn fruit highlights do you still have to come? Please do let me know, via the comments.

Footnotes

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  According to Esther Copley in The Housekeeper’s Guide (1838) “N.B. A baker’s dozen is always fourteen.” ↩︎