< Back to Main Blog Posted: Oct 2024

To whet your apple-tite: our Bramley apple blog…

Everyone loves a day trip, and our most recent one was to Puratos Fourayes, the 100-acre English Bramley apple orchard, who supply us with the apples for our Bramley Apple & Blackberry Crumble and our Braised Red Cabbage. They’re another family owned business and are only 20 minutes down the road from us in Sittingbourne. So, the fruit has a very easy commute to our kitchens.

We were met by the Farm Manager, Swailey Love (up there with the best names ever), who is a third-generation farmer. His father and grandfather got Swailey involved from an early age, teaching him to ride a tractor at 11, so he could scare the birds away from his family’s cherry orchards.

Swailey’s a boots-on-the-ground farmer, often getting his 20,000 steps in daily as he keeps an eye on the farm, checking for pests, making sure the soil’s good, looking for worm casts and everything else. Blissful as it sounds, being out on the farm all day long, all year round, is hard graft and there’s very little down time. December is the only month of the year when he gets to relax a little, once the farm’s been put to bed, ready for the new year.

But it’s not just Swailey working hard, the whole team are grafters. One of their team members picks 2-3 tonnes of apples a day, in an 8-hour shift. He is 70! There’s also another lady on the farm who makes what Swailey swears is the best apple crumble ever … we’re thinking a Bake-Off challenge is required, as we say the same about ours! Given that they both use the same delicious Bramley apples, we’d settle with joint first place!

Bramleys apples are great for cooking with, as they become golden and fluffy, and hold a delicious unique flavour.

I didn’t realise that for every apple on the tree you need around 60 leaves per fruit to act as little solar panels to feed the fruit its nutrients.

Every node on a branch will potentially be a fruit bud, so when pruning it’s really important to keep in mind to leave enough space for the fruit to grow. Any apples that naturally fall from the tree are left to breakdown over the winter months to enrich the soil as a natural compost.

The first Bramley's Seedling tree grew from pips planted by a lady called Mary Ann Brailsford in her garden when she was a young girl in Southwell, Nottinghamshire in 1809. Mary left home when she married and possibly never saw the apples that were produced. She died in 1852 never knowing that "her" seedling was to become famous. The tree she had planted in the garden (which still produces fruit) was later included in the purchase of the cottage by a local butcher, Matthew Bramley, in 1846. In 1856, a local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather, asked if he could take cuttings from the tree and start to sell the apples. Bramley agreed but insisted that the apples should bear his name.

And so, the Bramley was born. A variety much loved by so many of us. If we’ve whet your apple-tite, here’s a delicious recipe to try…

Apple Crumble Recipe – by Swailey Love

Serves 4

Ingredients - Crumble

1 Cup Flour
½ Cup White Sugar
½ Cup Demerara sugar
200g (1 Block) Unsalted Butter

Apple

3 Large Bramley Apples

Method

Crumble

Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl.

Use your hands and fingers to rub ingredients together to reach a crumbly texture.

Apple

Peel and core Bramley Apples.

Dice 2 apples into large pieces.

Dice 1 apple into small pieces.

Cooking method

Use a large pan, heat and add a small knob of unsalted butter (50g) and let butter melt.
Add Apple mixture and give good stir for butter to coat mixture.
Put lid back on pan and let apple cook for 15 minutes on high heat.
Let apple brown to create a caramelised flavour.
After 15 minutes, add ½ cup white sugar and ½ cup Demerara sugar and stir through.
Leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Take off the heat and let completely cool.
Put apple mixture into an oven proof dish.
Add crumble to the top, and place in oven for 20 minutes at 200◦ C in a fan oven.
Serve hot with Double Cream or Custard.

“Through winter winds you hold your charm,

And bring to homes a glowing warm,

For though the frost may claim the ground,

In Bramley’s taste a warmth is found.”

Shop Bramley Apple & Blackberry Crumble

Shop Braised Red Cabbage

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