The Victorian Apple Store.
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In the last blog I
mentioned the Coppin Pruner. This lead me to remembering what I would describe
as the last of the old Victorian Apple store sheds in Cookham, which was
created by Lord and Lady Astor when they bought White Place Farm in the early
1900's and built the walled-in garden opposite Sutton Farm. The reason that
this garden was built was to serve the kitchens of Cliveden House as the soil
was more suitable for growing vegetables than at it was up on the hill. Also it
was ideal for starting a large apple orchard. With that came the building of
the apple storage shed as you can see from the old etched drawing above.
In the next picture you
can see a re-vamped Google map of what the garden and orchard looked like, also
there was an “L” shaped wall, which sheltered soft fruit such as peaches and nectarines
from the cold north and east winds. In its hey-day it employed a gardener and
four under gardeners
The next drawing is a
colour sketch that I made up so you can see how the apples were stored on
sliding trays, the bottom of which was fine wire netting covered with a layer
of chopped oat straw. The apples were placed on the straw bed, making sure that
they did not touch. This way the good eating apples such as Blenheim Orange and
Coxes Orange Pippin would keep through until Christmas or mid-January. The
favourite cooking apple the Bramley Seedling was a good keeper and would last
to the end of February into early March. It also became a good eating apple in
January, as aging seemed to sweeten it.
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