Nature Links

The 'Golden Bromham' was found recently in the Stony Stratford area and was named after its golden appearance.

Andy Howard from the Heritage Fruit Tree Company told the BBC how a new variety of apple is identified and how this one probably came about…

"We think it may have just been a case of someone throwing an apple core out of their car window which amazingly has then been cross-pollinated with another apple tree and ended up making a lovely tasting apple! 

"Usually, wild apples don't actually taste any good - they're often small green apples, which taste really quite sour, but this one is absolutely lovely! 

"It's bright golden yellow in colour and when you cut it in half, even the seed casing is bright yellow!  It's sweet with a slight aromatic taste, and has a slight grey russeting around the outside so it looks a beautiful apple and tastes beautiful as well!" said Andy.

So how do you actually identify a new variety of apple?

"There are up to 6,500 varieties of apple in the UK at any one time, so you have to be quite meticulous!" explained Andy.

"You have to break it down when you're doing the identification of a new variety of apple.  You start with the length of the stalk, then you have to look at the shape of the apple and imagine it fitting into an apple box – is it a tall thin apple or a smaller squat shaped apple?  By cutting the apple in half and studying the shape of it in profile and then by looking at the 'eyes' at the bottom of the apple where the flower would have been – in fact there are loads of ways to work out a new variety of apple!

"Another clue is the colour – there are not very many golden apples so that cuts it down as well!" Andy told us.

Andy and colleague Marcus Roberts at the Mid Shires Orchard Group are so excited by this new apple, that they're now grafting it up to make the new apple available to the public.

Find out more by listening to our full interview with Andy Howard here: