Fruitful Search

What do Scarlet Crofton, Cabbage Stalk, Yellow Pitcher, Widow’s Friend, Sam Young, Ross Non Pareil, Piltown Early Red, Rawley’s Seedling, Green Chisel, April Queen mean to you?
They meant nothing to me until I started casting around for a brace of apple trees to replace some ancient and not very productive ones grubbed up in a recent redesign of our garden.

In the process I came across this wonderful website: http://www.irishseedsavers.com. I was determined to have a russet apple, as the North West of England, where I grew up, is one of the few regions where this wonderful apple, with its unique flavour and texture, is still appreciated. I also love the flavour of Cox’s orange pippin. The Irish Seed Saver Association, whose site it is, cultivate and sell one and two year-old apple trees, grafted on to different rootstocks to suit the size of the plot. After consulting the Association’s Rebecca Hussey I ordered two venerable and little-known Irish varieties, Ross Non Pareil, a russet and Rawley’s Seedling, a Cox variant from County Cork. Both varieties are attuned to the Irish climate and should therefore be greatly resistant to scab and mildew.

The Irish Seed Saver Association was founded by Anita Hayes in 1991. For the first few years the work was done from the founder’s own home and garden. She soon collected a core of willing helpers as well as quantities of seeds of various kinds With the financial aid of government bodies and many generous donations the Association soon took on a life of its own.

The Irish Seed Saver Association now has a ten-acre site in Co. Clare with purpose built facilities. Their seed bank contains in excess of 600 rare and endangered vegetable varieties. They also have native woodland, an apple orchard and nursery. There are presently three Richel polytunnels and one greenhouse. Recently the ISSA were donated a container which is being converted into a special room for seed drying. The site is well worth a visit and is open to the public on weekdays for members to look around (Non-members €3 entrance to gardens).

In the early 1990′s ISSA began a search for the last surviving traditional Irish varieties of apple. They have now found over 140 different types of Irish apple trees and they are all thriving in the Assocation’s orchards. Native apples are more intense in flavour than those now grown commercially. Varieties grown before the advent of pesticides are more resistant to scab. mildew and canker, because the trees are acclimatised to the warm and damp Irish weather conditions.

The first collection of native Irish apples was made in the 1940s by Keith Lamb and was planted on land belonging to Dublin Corporation; tragically it was destroyed in the early 1970s. Anita Hayes, working with the late Peadar MacNeice of the Armagh Orchard Trust and Dr. Michael Hennerty of University College Dublin, began work on replicating Dr. Lamb’s collection in 1991. Now all but 14 of the original collection have been found. In 1996 the Native Irish Apple Collection was opened by President Mary Robinson at University College Dublin and funding has now been put in place to replicate the collection at the Seed Savers site in Scarriff, Co Clare.

Membership of the association costs €35 per annum and confers several benefits including discounts on plants, a regular newsletter, access to the seed catalogue and 5 free seed varieties.

The ISSA practices organic farming using biodynamic methods and have made the conversion to Demeter, which is the biodynamic standard.

I am delighted to be able to play a part in preserving these traditional Irish varieties and am looking forward eagerly to the arrival of my trees. Now all I need is a plum tree…