This is a thread about apples. Which is fitting, as today is...
APPLE DAY 2020
Let's start at the beginning. Where did our first apples come from? After all they're not native here. Their travel tale involves bears, the Silk Road, Normans & Henry VIII. Sitting comfortably?

Nestled in the foothills of Kazakhstan's Tian Shan mountains, wild apple trees growing in wild fruit groves have for millenia been naturally selected for by sweet-toothed ursids. So when traders along The Silk Road found themselves passing through...they couldn't resist...

Yep, that's right folks, the humble apple started its journey to our shores via the rather unceremonoius mode of transport of a *bear's bottom*! But then things get really interesting. Once we'd *also* decided they tasted delicious, and travelled well, apples (and their pips)...

...migrated west from trading post to trading post, leaving behind a fruity trail of primitive orchards as cores were discarded en route. As various cultures began to select different fruit, & cultivars cross-pollinated with Europe's native crab apples; the modern apple was born.

Greek philosophers began to reference apples in their works, and the Romans, as was their nature, began to log and file dozens of different apple breeds on clay tablets. Pliny describes how fruiterers would auction fruit still on its mother tree. Grafting appeared. But as the...

...Romans pressed ever further north, the literary record suggests that it wasn't their hands that cemented the orchard in British culture. For that, we had to wait a few centuries longer for the arrival of a new band of conquerors. The Normans.

Whilst the Domesday Book records just a single large apple orchard in England, post Norman invasion the Garden of England really began to blossom. Abbeys soon cottoned on, selling cider to the public, orchards now favoured over increasingly unproductive vineyards. But it was...

...our own sweet-toothed Royal Families that really expanded Britain's Orchard Empire. Henry VIII tasked a fruiterer, Richard Harris, with the job of selecting Europe's finest fruit varieties and bringing them all to be grown in the Kentish 'King's Orchards'. So why so many...

...traditional orchards in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire then? For that we have the roundheads, and Cromwell-led Commonwealth to thank. Cromwell spearheaded an initiative to plant fruit trees across the country. Though nationally unsuccessful, those three...

counties did become cloaked in traditional orchards. These were so extensive that John Evelyn, writing in 1664, described the whole county of Herefordshire as 'one entire orchard'. In spring, this long-lost blossom forest must once have rivalled the famous Japanese spectacle.

In turn, these mega-orchards created something very special for our wildlife. As natural forest cover dwindled, and long before the days of industrial insecticides and fungicides, traditional orchards became accidental nature reserves. Species that evolved in wood pasture...

...found all they needed in these human-shaped copies. Whilst the Elizabethan Grain Acts certainly didn't help, everything from woodpeckers to red squirrels to shrikes once thrived in this expansive unnatural forest. Yet now, this whole ecosystem is on the verge of collapse.

For traditional orchards to thrive, we need a market for their apples, pears, perry pears and other stoned fruit. But instead of looking after our own, we have opted to import. Apples from afar as South Africa, Brazil and New Zealand are common on supermarket shelves.

So how can you help? Well, for one, please try to only buy organic apples, grown in the UK. Enjoy a cider? There are loads of small producers carefully crafting exquisite tipples to tease your taste buds. Check out the picture tags and add any more you recommend in here

Another is to support community orchards. Follow @ProjectOrchard and @PTESOrchards to find out more. The best part is you'll learn about growing and storing your own fruit, often very locally, and will get a share of your community orchard's produce each year!

Be vocal about environmental vandalism. It would be a fitting tribute if the legacy of the#CubbingtonPearTree is a resurgence in buying local, supporting community orchards and in turn helping reverse the massive biodiversity losses experienced since the advent of the railway.

Finally, if you're interesting in learning more about how traditional orchards benefit some of our rarest species, my friend @Rebirding1 and I have recently released our book 'Orchard: A Year in England's Eden'. We'd be delighted to hear what you think of it