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Selecting pome fruit trees for Canberra

Owen Pidgeon

Perfect match: Quinces grow well in the Canberra region and mature mid-season.
Perfect match: Quinces grow well in the Canberra region and mature mid-season.Supplied

Sweet and juicy
Fresh from the tree
Full of flavour
Oh what can thou be?

What is the best apple or pear? This is a very common question which can go beyond the basics of skin colour, shape, flavour and texture. How well it will store, can it be used in cooking and if so, will it keep its shape or become soft and fluffy. For growers, there is the additional matter of climate. Apples and pears that grow well back in the mild climates of Europe may not be able to endure the harshness of our hot summers.

All fruit need a period of winter chill. Apples and pears require more chill hours than most other fruits, so that is why they grow better in high altitude locations where the winter months bring swirling fogs and many frosty mornings.

Batlow product: Bonza is a fantastic local, mid-season apple which is so reliable year after year.
Batlow product: Bonza is a fantastic local, mid-season apple which is so reliable year after year.Supplied
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These two families of fruits, which all flower within a period of three to four weeks in September and October, have the widest maturity bands of any fruits that I know. Some apple varieties will be ready for harvest in January and the last one is the Lady Williams that ripens in the month of June. The earliest maturing pears are ready in February and others are ripe only in May.

It is wonderful that city folk have begun to re-discover the amazing range of apples and pears that have been grown around the world for centuries. For backyard gardeners in the Canberra region, you have the perfect climate to grow your own selection. With dwarf rooting stock being now used by specialist propagating nurseries, the height of the tree can be restricted. Backyards can have eight to 10 fruit trees planted closely along a fence line. This allows an extended harvest across several months.

Fresh eating or cooking, sweet or tart, crunchy or melting. These are the primary qualities of the fruit, rather than the outside appearance. Growers of organic apples and pears can seldom supply the big supermarket chains, which seek only consistent colour and size, rejecting the undersized and slightly blemished fruit. Thank goodness for the emergence of farmers' markets where customers can learn about the fruits’ qualities and taste the difference.

Early apples have a frailness. They grow and mature so quickly that they will also become overripe and soft very quickly. Lodi from New York State is a good early apple, light green in appearance with good flavour. It is regarded as one of the best apple sauce apple. Vista bella is a medium sized, red skinned early apple which is sweet and juicy. It has a short shelf life but gives you that wonderful new season taste.

Gravenstein is, for me, one of the best early maturing apples, crisp and juicy and wonderfully aromatic. It originated in southern Denmark in 1669 and is now grown widely across Europe and Canada. It will hold up well for fresh eating and can be used as a baked apple and to make new season apple sauce. Tydemans early is the best early season English apple with the famous American Mcintosh as one parent. Akane is the other early apple of note, from the research centre of Japan. It is sweet with a hint of strawberry.

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By late February, you can harvest apples that can be stored for longer periods. The royal gala is crisp and juicy and will store well. There are now several bright red versions of royal gala. The James Grieve apple has a Scottish origin but grows well here. It is crisp with strong acidity, good for baking as well as fresh eating.

Apples that mature in March and April are plentiful indeed. You can be overwhelmed by the wonderful sounding names and descriptions. Allow me to select some that are proven producers of quality apples.

Spartan and snowy apples have very white flesh and are apples of distinction. The spartan was bred in Summerland Canada in the 1930s, being a cross between the McIntosh and newtown pippin. It has striking purplish skin and is delicious for fresh eating and using in salads. Snowy apples are traced back to France, being introduced to Vermont in 1730 and then into Canada. It is a delicious eating apple which keeps well. It also makes wonderful dried apple and apple juice, and this is the apple we choose for toffee apples.

Lord Lambourne and Cox’s orange pippin are two English apples of distinction that ripen in March. They are very aromatic apples. The golden delicious which came originally from Clay County, West Virginia is a lovely apple when picked ripe off the tree, with juice trickling down one’s cheek when you take your first bite. There is now a whole family of ‘goldens’ that mature through the middle months of harvest, all being traced back to this first original apple.

Of note, the golden delicious has been one of the most used apples in research and breeding centres to produce new apples of distinction. Pink lady and sundowner were both bred in Western Australia by crossing golden delicious and lady williams parent apples.

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There are apples of distinction from around the world that are tart when eaten but also used widely in cooking. Belle de boskoop is the grand old Dutch apple with french reinette parentage. It is sharp but excellent to eat. It keeps its shape when cooked for pie making but can be also turned into wonderful golden apple puree. The Orleans reinette and reinette du Canada are the best French origin varieties which can also be eaten but are wonderful to use in tart making and apple sauce production.

Bonza is the fantastic local (Batlow 1951), mid season apple which is so reliable year after year. It is one of a number of disease resistant varieties that home gardeners can buy and not have any of the challenges with apple scab prevention. Mutzu and granny smith are both excellent, large, green skin apples which turn somewhat golden as they hang on the trees through to April.

Stewarts seedling and murray gem are two fine, Australian origin apples that are late season and keep well. Sturmer pippin, winter banana, democrat and scarlet nonpariel are also fine, late season apples to complement the pink lady and lady williams varieties.

Pears
With pears you would not miss planting the early williams pear. I would recommend the red-skinned variety that came about in Mock’s Victorian orchard. It is named red sensation and it is just a wonderful early season pear. For mid-season pears, you could not go past the red d’anjou and the packhams. Beurre bosc is wonderful for cooking. As well, the Belgium pears of distinction include late season josephine and winter nelis.

Quinces
Quinces grow well in the Canberra region and mature mid season, from mid March through to May. Smyrna is the best-known large aromatic quince. The champion and fullers are prolific, pear-shaped quinces. Powells prize is an Australian variety that cooks to a delicate pink. De bourgeaut is an excellent, large French variety which ripens later in the season.

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The online suppliers Yalca Fruit Trees, Heritage Fruit Trees and Woodbridge Fruit Trees now stock a wide selection of heritage fruit trees.

Country pear and quince pie

5 medium sized pears

3 medium sized quinces

3 tbsp unsalted butter

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¼ cup sugar

Pastry

2½ cups plain flour

2/3 cup icing sugar

150g butter

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cold water

Heat oven to 180C. Peel, core and quarter the pears and quinces and cut into thick slices.

Make the pastry by sifting the flour, mix in the sugar and then rub in the butter until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Add water gradually by cutting it into the mixture with a flat bladed knife, to make a rough dough. Knead with your hands a few times to make the dough smooth. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Butter the bottom of a deep pie dish. Roll out the pastry to be 100mm wider than the dish. Lift the pastry with a rolling pin and carefully lay the pastry into the dish, allowing the edges to hang over the edge. Layer the pear and quince slices onto the pastry. Then sprinkle with the icing sugar and dollop the unsalted butter onto the top of the fruit. Fold the edges of the pastry over the fruit. Tidy up the edges to leave a small central gap for the pie.

Bake for 60 minutes until the filling is tender and the pastry is golden brown (check using a wooden skewer). Allow the pie to cool for 20 minutes and then sprinkle icing sugar across the top.

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Recipe from Loriendale Fruits of the Orchard cookbook.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.

This week in the garden

  • Plant out advanced onion seedlings and shallots. Also plant out winter hardy lettuces where they will get lots of winter sun, if possible close to a brick will that will radiate heat.
  • Prepare slightly hilled up rows for any plantings of berries, digging in generous supplies of compost. Continue to prepare beds for the winter plantings of asparagus and rhubarb.
  • Sow leek and late season onion seeds into propagation trays then keep in a warm sunny location, protecting overnight, until they have germinated.
  • Keep raking up fallen leaves and add to your compost. Turn the new heaps to promote decomposition.
  • It's time to begin pruning apple, pear and quince trees. Reduce the height of tall trees and thin out where branches overlap. Remove broken and dead branches.

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