There is one farmer who provides more varieties of cider apples and perry pears than any other farmer to Dunkertons Cider – John Tedstone. He is a real orchard enthusiast. Whenever he is about the county and he sees a variety of apple or pear he hasn’t seen before he will take a cutting and his standard trees are often grafted with three, four varieties on the one tree to maximise the number of varieties he can grow.
He also grows many varieties of dessert apples and pears and from summer through autumn and winter he will often visit with a bag of seasonal fruit. More often than not they are varieties that are not available in the shops and if we haven’t come across the apple or pear he will recommend whether to eat it as a piece of fruit or that it would be good in a pie or whatever.
When he called last Friday he told us the pears he’d brought us were Winter Nelis and said they were equally good eaten as they are or cooked for pies or crumbles. However, the crisp winter weather made me feel it was time for a spiced sticky cake!
Winter Nelis (Pyrus communis)
This is one of the last of the dessert pears to be picked. Grown and developed as a seedling by Jean Charles Nelis in Belgium in the early 1800s. The pear has a firm texture and is aromatic. It is sweet and juicy with a good flavour. Good for eating from the hand or used in cooking.
Hogg’s Fruit Manual, 1884:
“Fruit, below medium size; roundish obovate narrowing abruptly towards the stalk. Skin, dull green at first, changing to yellowish green, covered with numerous russety dots and patches of brown russet, particularly on the side next the sun ...... Flesh, yellowish, fine-grained, buttery and melting, with a rich, sugary and vinous flavour and a fine aroma.”
