Is Bramley's Seedling just Bramley?
An orchard anywhere in Ireland would not be complete without a Bramley apple. Just before Christmas I planted this one and because Bramleys tend to grow more vigorously and widely than other varieties, I thought I would plant it away from the other apples to give it plenty of space to take pride of place.
The label said 'Bramley's Seedling' and someone asked me if it was related to Bramley cooking apples. In fact this is just the common horticultural name for Bramley apples (Bramley's Seedling). It is not a derivative variety, as the name suggests.
Bramleys are by some way the most popular apple grown commercially in Northern Ireland, in the traditional Armagh apple growing zone. Whether because of the climate, or natural mutations in the Bramley variety over time, Armagh Bramleys have a particular tart flavour which works very well for cooking, and even for cider making. As a result, the term Armagh Bramleys is protected by the EU (like Champagne, or Parma Ham).
If you are in a grocers or supermarket in Northern Ireland in the Autumn or Winter you will be sure to find a crate stacked with huge green, Bramley apples. They are from my experience by some way the largest of the cooking apples commonly seen.
The tree is however originally from Nottinghamshire, where it was grown by a young girl who planted a pip from an apple she had eaten. Of course this will have contained the DNA from its two parent trees, pollinated by insects at some point in the 1800s and the variety of which is long forgotten. But the original tree still stands in that same garden where the girl originally planted it. Sadly she was not Bramley (her family were Brailsford), but the next purchaser of the house after her family, who was Mr Bramley, and who agreed to commercialise the fruits under his own name. So we could, had the house transfer not gone ahead, easily been calling this variety Brailsford.
The label said 'Bramley's Seedling' and someone asked me if it was related to Bramley cooking apples. In fact this is just the common horticultural name for Bramley apples (Bramley's Seedling). It is not a derivative variety, as the name suggests.
Bramleys are by some way the most popular apple grown commercially in Northern Ireland, in the traditional Armagh apple growing zone. Whether because of the climate, or natural mutations in the Bramley variety over time, Armagh Bramleys have a particular tart flavour which works very well for cooking, and even for cider making. As a result, the term Armagh Bramleys is protected by the EU (like Champagne, or Parma Ham).
If you are in a grocers or supermarket in Northern Ireland in the Autumn or Winter you will be sure to find a crate stacked with huge green, Bramley apples. They are from my experience by some way the largest of the cooking apples commonly seen.
The tree is however originally from Nottinghamshire, where it was grown by a young girl who planted a pip from an apple she had eaten. Of course this will have contained the DNA from its two parent trees, pollinated by insects at some point in the 1800s and the variety of which is long forgotten. But the original tree still stands in that same garden where the girl originally planted it. Sadly she was not Bramley (her family were Brailsford), but the next purchaser of the house after her family, who was Mr Bramley, and who agreed to commercialise the fruits under his own name. So we could, had the house transfer not gone ahead, easily been calling this variety Brailsford.
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