The Orchard Path
Orchard and Apple
Publications

 

Common Ground issue a number of publications related to apples and orchards, but you might be interested by these books and products available from other organisations.

 Michael Clark - Apples - a field guide
 Christopher Cowles & David Walker - The Art of Apple Branding
 Barry and Sarah Juniper - The COMPLEAT Planter & Cyderist
 Jonathan Latimer - Orchards – Through the Eyes of an Artist
 William Lawson - A New Orchard and Garden (1618)
 Michael Phillips - Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist
 Alan Rowe - Success with Apples and Pears to Eat and Drink
 Derek Shapiro - Fruit cards
 Christopher Stocks - Forgotten Fruits

 


 

Apples - a field guide, Michael Clark

Contents include how to choose an apple tree, the various rootstocks, shapes and forms; how to plant and look after your apple tree; how to plan an orchard; pruning and propogation. The heart of the book is the guide to 130 varieties. Entries aid identification and choice of tree by including a colour photograph of the apple, and information on flowering time, ripening time, pruning type, flavour, texture and keeping ability.

The author recounts the history of the variety and mentions specific characteristics. Identification chart for quick use.For the last thirty years, Michael Clark has been lucky enough to live in an orchard in Tewin, Hertfordshire, that was planted in the 1930s. Michael also wrote the successful book "Badgers" for Whittet Books.

ISBN 1-873580-57-6 

176 pages, hardback

120 colour illustrations 

£19.99 

Published by Whittet Books, Hill Farm, Stonham Road, Cotton,
Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 4RQ Tel. +44(0)1449 781877

 


The Art of Apple Branding, Christopher Cowles & David Walker

This beautifully-illustrated book is the only book of its type to chart how Australian agricultural produce has been sold to the former British Empire and beyond.

Colourful paper labels were used to create an identity and, when glued onto wooden boxes, they remained the dominant visual clue about the perishable contents marketed to the wholesalers in local markets and far-flung lands. Memories were long and reputations were made and lost on the quality of the produce represented by these examples of ‘industrial folk art’.

Read MORE HERE

ISBN 0-646-43420-9

218 pages, hardback

150 full-colour and 875 black & white illustrations and photographs

For price details, email:
info [at] applesfromoz.com

For more information, visit www.applesfromoz.com


 

The COMPLEAT Planter & Cyderist, compiled by Barry and Sarah Juniper

This little book, almost unknown to the antiquarian trade, was published anonymously in 1685. Only a handful survive. This is a 2nd edition, a near facsimile of the original, but with an additional twenty-seven contemporary engravings and twelve colour plates of the period. A full bibliography lists all the authorities cited by the writer.

The text is packed with practical information on planting an orchard, grafting, pruning, manuring and protecting fruit against enemies of all kinds. There is a comprehensive section on the production, casking, bottling and storage of cyder and other country wines.

Available at £25.00 plus p&p (£6.50 UK, £13.00 overseas)
from: BE Juniper, 36 Beech Croft Road, Oxford OX2 7AZ
or SB Juniper, 109 Woodmancote, Dursley, Gloucs GL11 4AH

Cheques payable to Dr Barrie Juniper.

 


 

Orchards – Through the Eyes of an Artist, Jonathan Latimer

Award-winning wildlife artist Jonathan Latimer has added momentum to the growing concern for the Nation’s increasingly threatened orchards with the launch of his new book, ‘Orchards – Through the Eyes of an Artist’. Launched in October 2005, this new title features a collection of stunning new paintings featuring everything from rare beetles and livestock to cider apples and perry making. Inspired by his travels from the heart of Somerset cider country to a neglected apple orchard in the Scottish Borders, Jonathan’s paintings celebrate the diversity and beauty of British Orchards. Complimenting paintings of astonishing quality, the artist adds thought provoking commentaries, further highlighting the threats orchards face at the beginning of the 21st century.

You can almost smell the freshly cooked bacon in his portrayal of a Gloucester Old Spot burger, whilst two stag beetles look as though they might walk across the page at a moment’s notice. There are also paintings of a purely documentary nature, like a rusting tractor set against the backdrop of damson blossom in the Lyth Valley, or a young Hereford calf resting in the tranquil confines of a standard cider orchard. In his clever depiction of the life cycle of the Codling moth, Jonathan brings great innovation and imagination to his work, presenting the reader with a privileged view of an unseen natural world.

‘Orchards – Through the Eyes of an Artist’ highlights the beauty and fragility of these enchanting places, parts of our natural and cultural heritage that deserve to be treasured and preserved for future generations. With an enthusiasm for the subject that shines through every page, the artist has produced a book that will challenge and inspire readers of every age.

Jonathan is a full-time freelance illustrator specialising in Natural History subjects, and has produced work for many organisations including English Nature, the RSPB and National Geographic. In 2003 he won the prestigious Birdwatch Artist of the Year competition, and he has exhibited with the SWLA (Society of Wildlife Artists) at the Mall Galleries in London since that time. Jonathan will be signing copies of the book and exhibiting artwork from the title at Sulgrave Manor’s Apple Day celebrations, Sulgrave Manor (Oxfordshire), over the weekend 15th /16th October 2005.

ISBN 1-904078-08-7

£25.00

‘Orchards – Through the Eyes of an Artist’ is available direct from the Langford Press from 1st October 2005, priced £25. Tel: 01778 341132 or email: sales [at] langford-press.co.uk.

For further information about the artist, or to purchase a range of limited edition prints and cards featuring artwork from the book, visit www.jonathanlatimer.com

Contact: Jonathan Latimer
Tel: +44(0)1257 791738
Email: jonathan [at] latimer1608.freeserve.co.uk

 


 

A New Orchard and Garden with The Country Housewifes Garden (1618), William Lawson

William Lawson (d. 1635) was a clergyman on Teeside in North Yorkshire at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was also a keen and experienced gardener who distilled the fruits of his knowledge into these two little books, among the treasures of early gardening literature.

The Country Housewifes Garden is precious to us for its attention to the role of women: as cooks, lovers of fine flowers, and keepers of the herbal medicine cupboard. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Lawson wrote from experience, he got his fingers dirty, not simply retelling book-learnt knowledge from classical treatises. There is the ring of truth in his advice.While making lots of suggestions about the practice of gardening and growing fruit trees, he is particularly interested in the layout and design of orchard and pleasure garden. There are some fine woodcuts of knot-gardens and various designs for flower beds. He is also full of information about beekeeping. At the end of the two main works, there are two contemporary, short pamphlets on grafting and on picking, packing and transporting fruit.

This is a facsimile of the 1656 printing. There is a scholarly introduction by Malcolm Thick which sets the works and the man in context. Malcolm Thick is an agricultural historian. He has contributed to the Agrarian History of England, and he is the author of The Neat House Gardens, a study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century market gardening in London.

This book is of interest to any garden history enthusiasts, and readers who are taken by early feminist history as well. William Lawson has been reprinted many times, though never in facsimile. The last reissue, considerably abridged, was in 1983.

ISBN 1-903018-10-2  

130 pages, hardback 

10 black and white drawings. 

£15.00 

Published by Prospect Books, Allaleigh House, Blackawton, Totnes, Devon TQ9 7DL
Distributed by Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN

 


 

Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist, Michael Phillips.

"This definitive guide to growing apples wisely, naturally, and with gentler impact on the earth covers all the cultural points of apple growing. Michael's personal voice and clear-eyed advice have already made The Apple Grower a classic among small-scale growers and home orchardists. In fact, anyone serious about succeeding with apples needs to have this updated edition on their bookshelf."

Published by Chelsea Green.

ISBN 1931498911

$40.00

 

See the Herbs and Apples web-site for more information.

 


 

Success with Apples and Pears to Eat and Drink, Alan Rowe

A practical gardeners' guide to varieties, husbandry, harvesting, storing and making juices, cyder and perry. Alan Rowe's handbook results from more than 40 years experience of growing dessert, culinary, cyder and perry apples and pears in Suffolk.

There are desriptions of more than 120 varieties of apples and pears and hawthorns, medlars, quinces and sorbs, each of which is assessed for its particular suitability for the gardener.

This comprehensive guide comments upon history, husbandry, planting, cultivation and training of pomes, their pests and diseases and how to harvest and store and make cyder and perry and vinegar.

The book is well illustrated and makes an excellent kitchen gardener's companion to the same author's 'Successful Grape Growing for Eating and Wine-making'.

ISBN 0-9527141-3-2  

132 pages, paperback. 

Colour / b&w illustrations throughout 

£12.95 

Published by Groundnut Publishing, Vinces Road, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4HG
www.growingapplesandpears.co.uk


Fruit cards, Derek Shapiro.

A range of twelve still life oil paintings featuring traditional English apples, issued as 157 x 112mm greetings cards by Country Gallery. Cards come blank for your own message and with envelopes. Visit Derek's web-site for more information.


Forgotten Fruits, Christopher Stocks

A guide to Britain's traditional fruit and vegetables, and a fascinating work of natural and social history.

"The damp, temperate British climate allows us to grow a wider range of fruit and vegetables than virtually anywhere else on earth, and the history of their introduction, adoption and improvement has mirrored the transformations in British society from the Roman conquest right through to the present day."

Published by Random House.

ISBN 9781905211807

264 pages, hardback. 

Colour plates / b&w illustrationsthroughout

£16.99