Seasonal food: apples

Rick Peters
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 10.40 GMT

Katy, Royal Gala, Red Delicious and Braeburn apple varieties. Photograph: Alamy

UK apple season. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

Malus domestica is the single most widely cultivated genus of fruit tree on the face of the earth, which is perhaps surprising given the number of people who believe it played a central role in the fall of humankind from a state of grace. However, its hardy and long-lived trees with their natural variety combined with a receptiveness to generations of persistent gardeners' crossing and grafting techniques have resulted in an amazingly diverse family of fruits.

In modern times, the apple was the first fruit to be planted on the American continent by European settlers, giving rise to the expression 'as American as apple pie' and lasting confusion in the minds of the Europeans left behind who swear to this day that apple pie was their idea. The continent's farmers found the apple tree as well suited to the varied environments of the new world as to those of the old, and thanks in part to their efforts there are now 35 species in the genus, and, it's reckoned, as many as 15,000 varieties of apple worldwide.

Britain claims some of the best flavoured fruits including the delightfully named Cox's Orange Pippin (a pippin was originally any apple grown from a pip) and Egremont Russet. Other popular modern varieties originate from other corners of the globe - to name but a few, Golden Delicious comes from West Virginia, Braeburn was developed in New Zealand, the Granny Smith in Sydney and Pink Lady in Western Australia, while Fuji was developed in Japan and is now the most widely cultivated of the apples grown by the world's largest producer, China.

An apple is a naturally pre-packaged snack which keeps as well in a pocket as in a barrel and sits as happily next to roast pork as, juiced and fermented, it does in a glass. Its pips, skin and juice contain the pectin used to set jams and jellies, and the range of puddings which feature it is staggering. All this is to say nothing of its legendary health-giving qualities - as PG Wodehouse famously remarked, "an apple a day, if well aimed, keeps the doctor away."

Varieties

There are four main types of apple grown for consumption - cider apples, dessert or eating apples (eg Cox's Orange Pippin), cooking apples (eg Bramleys), and dual purpose apples which are tart when young and mellow with ripeness (eg Granny Smith). A fifth type, crab apples, has high levels of pectin useful for jam making but the trees which bear it are more usually grown for ornamental purposes than for fruit.

How to buy / what to look for

A firm fruit with unblemished skin, which is especially important for fruits intended for storage.

Nutrition

Some vitamin C, dietary fibre.

Harvested

In the UK from August to November, then available from store until the following spring.

Storage

Early season apples last less well than their later ripening relatives, which will keep for months in cool, dark conditions (not in the fridge) if separated from each other. Cooked apples freeze well, and the flesh can also be dried in the sun (or in the oven if you live in Britain).