Orchard Network

Dessert Apples

Melcombe Russet from Melcombe Bingham in the 19th century, delicious, tangy, pineapple-like. Woolcombe Beauty, grown from a pip at Woolcombe Farm, Melbury Bubb in around 1971, and propagated from 2007 after it was proclaimed "an apple of exceptional quality" by an expert at Sherborne Castle Apple Day.

Cooking Apples

Profit recorded in about 1826, and thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered by Harry Baker at Kingston Maurward Apple Day, Dorset in 2001. A mid season cooking apple with a unique flavour, no sugar needed. Once grown widely in the Cranborne Chase area.

Dual Purpose Apples

Buttery d’Or a sharp cider / cooking apple from West Dorset. Tom Putt / Sidney Strake may be from Dorset but more likely Somerset / Devon. Also planted widely in the West Midlands. A popular West Country cider and cooking apple. Warrior, a dessert / culinary variety from 18th / 19th centuries, once thought extinct.

Cider Apples

Golden Ball from Netherbury area.

Plums

Bryanston Gage found in the gardens of Lord Portman at Bryanston, Blandford around 1800, similar to a very pale Green Gage, but larger, juicy and delicious.

This list was compiled using many sources including The New Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards (Ebury Press 2002).