Another 8kg Spartan apples picked

We finished picking the Spartan apples today and shipped off another 8kg to GrowToGive.

We have just the one Spartan apple tree on the Top Fruit plot. The ‘Spartan’ is notable for being the first new breed of apple produced from a formal scientific breeding program developed by R. C Palmer and introduced in 1936 from the Federal Agriculture Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia The apple was supposedly a cross between two North American cultivars, the ‘McIntosh’ and the ‘Newtown Pippin’, but recently, genetic analysis showed the ‘Newtown Pippin’ was not one of the parents and its identity remains a mystery. The ‘Spartan’ apple is considered a good all-purpose apple. The apple is of medium size and has a dark-red blush, but can have background patches of greens and yellows