As the world's most produced fruit and the most popular, apples are clearly a favorite of most people. But for the British, they seem to love apples more than people elsewhere, and even set up an apple festival for it. Today, it has been held for more than 30 years.
On the day of the festival, a variety of unusual apple varieties will come together; There are also different kinds of apples for participants to taste and taste; As well as many apple products and peripheral products are available.
Let's take a look at this British people's national apple day.
▲ Some entertaining British Apple Festival
Harvest autumn, "Apple Festival" loved by adults and children
▲There are various events on the day of the Apple Festival
The events on Apple Festival can range from apple games in the garden to large village fairs with cooking demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and the sale of hundreds of apple varieties.
On this day, national monuments or apple orchards with many apple trees are opened to celebrate the Apple Festival with residents. Roasted pastries, pies or jams made from fresh apples are popular in their warehouses. Of course, there is also a tea drinking area, where adults enjoy the fruits of the autumn harvest while drinking tea. Freshly made cider is also delicious, but because it contains alcohol, be careful not to drink too much. If you are not good at drinking, drink 100% delicious apple juice!
▲ There are botanists who introduce apple knowledge to people
Children will also be allowed to make handicrafts with apples, and then hang the finished products on trees, as if they are in a fantasy world. The farmer will provide different kinds of apples to try, eat what you like, and then weigh it and buy it home. Cider or apple juice can be packed in hampers and many people buy them home as Christmas gifts.
In addition, apple harvesting events are held in many cities, and families will prepare apple cake, applesauce, apple juice and other meals to have fun.
Apple Festival to commemorate biodiversity
▲A variety of British native apples presented at the Apple Festival
Launched in 1990 by Common Ground, a charity based in Dorset, England, the Apple Festival was originally held only at Covent Garden in London.
The main purpose of the event is to arouse people's thinking about biological, cultural and genetic diversity, represented by more than 7,000 species of apples around the world, and to make people aware of the uniqueness of indigenous varieties, so that the inheritance of indigenous varieties can be preserved.
As a result, the event was held and won over many British people, and then held every year on a Saturday or Sunday around October 21. According to incomplete statistics, by 2000 alone, more than 600 events were held across the UK to celebrate the day.
▲Children can have fun at the event site
Of course, like many festivals, many people may have long forgotten the original intention of the festival, and it has become a national participation activity, children can play here, adults can call friends here, and merchants and orchards can sell their products here, and the activity has become a win-win carrier.
Inheriting local apple varieties, there are still people who do not forget their original intention
▲Live display of early British native apples
On the day of the event, there will be dozens of native varieties for people to taste or sell at the event. And these varieties come from those who adhere to native varieties, and they specially cultivate some traditional varieties for biological diversity to preserve the genes of the original varieties; Or try to graft and improve traditional native varieties while planting mainstream varieties in order to carry them forward.
▲Posters for the early British Apple Festival, etc
There are more than 300 varieties of apples grown in the UK, but very few have entered the national market. Because supermarkets think they're too ugly or too different in size, they prefer to sell apples from France and New Zealand that have perfect sizes and shapes, such as Gala, Red Delicious, etc.
Of course, there are also local varieties that are popular with the British, such as Cox apple, the most popular apple in the UK, and Bramley, a local apple specially used in cooking (too sour to eat on its own).
#苹果节 #
On Apple Day, you can see the ugliest apples in the world
If you're lucky, you can see the world's ugliest apples on the day of the British Apple Festival, and there is no one! It is the Knobbed Russet (knotted russet apple) discovered in 1819.
How ugly is Knobbed Russet?
known as the world's ugliest Apple Knobbed Russet
Let's tell you this, it's so ugly that it is thrown into the potato pile and can't even be found. Knobbed Russet is so ugly, its skin is not the usual yellow, green and not red, but gray-green, and the fruit is covered with bumps, warts and ribs. The appearance of the fruit is neither symmetrical nor smooth, and under the mottled skin hides ivory flesh. The flesh tastes dry and tight, and there is no feeling of moisture and juicy at all. Knobbed Russet, on the other hand, has a rich flavor, with a hint of citrus, spices and nuts in addition to sweet and sour.
Because it was too ugly to be grown commercially, Knobbed Russet nearly became extinct in the 40s of the 20th century.
#英国 #
Read more: Seasons and main types of apples in the UK
Today, foreign varieties of apples are also widely grown and harvested in the UK. There are many types of apples that can be bought throughout the year, regardless of men, women, children or areas of residence, apples are undoubtedly the national fruit that British people cannot do without every day.
In the UK today, you can buy a wide variety of apples regardless of the season. But in the past, once the apple trees in the yard entered the ripening period, they would be wasted if they were not eaten quickly. As a result, apples are served on the table every day, and apples are used in dishes and snacks, and whether it is baking soufflés or baking cakes, it is a common family pastry. It is also preserved as applesauce, which is indispensable for pork dishes, or jam that accompanies bread. The most common thing to make and sell is apple cake. Compared to freshly eaten baked soufflé, apple cake is baked and put back the next day to make it oily, and the taste will become more moist and delicious.
From the perspective of eating, British apples are divided into two types, one is edible apples, that is, apples that can be eaten raw. The other is apples for cooking. They tend to have a strong sour taste and are delicious when heated. It is mostly used in the preparation of dim sum, dishes, and jams.
Postscript:
If you were to list apple varieties, would it be more than 5?
Although there are currently more than 7,000 species (some are expected to exceed tens of thousands) of apples in the world, too single apple varieties are not good for biological richness, such as the "Cavendish" banana that people mostly eat, which accounts for more than 80% of the world's cultivation, because biological uniformity may disappear from people's tables in the future.
Fortunately, there is such a somewhat entertaining festival that allows people to remember to maintain biodiversity.
In fact, there are also apple festivals in the mainland, such as the apple festival in Zibo Yiyuan, Shandong, the red Fuji apple festival in Fengxian County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, the Jingning apple festival in Gansu, the apple festival in the north four counties of Xianyang, Shaanxi, and the apple festival in Changping in Beijing... Some are also decades old, but overall, interactive and participatory are still some distance from the UK Apple Festival.
#苹果 #
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