Apple Picking

I was home to Scotland this year for half term, just in time to get the very last of the apples clinging onto the tree.  Despite it only being a small tree (only about 7ft) we still managed to pick a good number.  These are Discovery apples (or at least this is what we think they are).   These are such a stunning red colour, and have a lovely pink vein running through them on the inside.  The best part of home-grown apples is they are not perfect!  All different sizes, shapes, marks on the skins and imperfections. Unfortunately the apples from this particular tree do not last long once off the tree so a lot of these will be stewed down and frozen for later in the year.

It was only after watching What Britain Buys and Sells in a Day on BBC Two I started noticing all our apples in the supermarket are the same size. Apparently market research has said in the UK we like 95mm diameter apples. This is apparently because we like to eat apples "on the go" and this is the perfect snack size apple.  I was horrified to hear all the big apples grown in the UK are shipped to Dubai as they like larger apples.  This just seems crazy.  So this week I will enjoy my misshaped and misized apples.