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Added: 21-02-2010
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Winter King was raised in Berkshire, England in 1920 by crosing Cox's Orange Pippin with Worcester Pearmain, and received an RHS merit award when introduced in 1935. The name was changed to Winston in 1944 to honour Sir Winston Churchill, the British WW2 leader. We prefer the older name, no disprespect to the great man intended. If you want to obtain this apple from a nursery, ask for Winston, but our customers know it as Winter King. The tree is said to be suitable for growing in the north and west. It grows well for us in the south./nWe originally planted 5 trees, knowing nothing but what we had read in books. Several years later we had our first crop. When we first took them to market, they were a sensation and we sold out quickly. After a few seasons, the pattern of our customers really liking these, and selling out earlier in the season than we would have thought, became established and we realised we needed more. /nOur philosophy is to have a wide spread of early, mid season and late maturing apples to offer fruit ripe in season from late July to Christmas, we don't use a controlled atmosphere (CA) store, you get much richer flavours by natural ripening. We therefore need an apple that stores well into the winter. Winter King is the bests we have found so far. Also, an apple that stores late will have that crunch, and our customers love than crunch. We aleays offer a free tasting, and find that people like this before we really think its ripe, but that OK-willing seller, willing buyer!/nAs it was so popular, we determined to plant a row of them (33 trees) in our latest orchard section, planted in 1999/2000. There was no way of obtaining 33 trees of such a rare variety, the few heritage apple nurseries only grow small numbers for the home grower, NOBODY is planting heritage apples like this on a commercial scale as the industry shrinks to an ever smaller number of global commodity apples. I had the idea to plant a row of MM106 rootstocks which were over size and surplus to our needs, and cleft grafted them in situ. I am glad to say I had 100% success, and there is now a row of 33 Winter Kings cropping well./nThe apple is said to be ripe from December to April, but we find people like it from October and we usually sell out by Christmas. Its very crunchy, which many customers seem to prioritise over flavour. Its got a good flavour too, from the Cox parentage. How interesting that crossing Cox with Worcester Pearmain, a very EARLY apple which doesn't store at all well, should give us a very late keeper!?! Just one more example showing why we MUST preserve the heritage varieties for their genetic value. And not just apples, but all food plants./nIf you like Braeburn but can't grow it (it doesn't grow well in Britain) I recommend growing this instead, similar texture, better flavour. Its the best choice I am aware of for a late winter apple. /nNOTE, you MUST thin the fruitlets in early summer, it always sets too many fruits, not a bad fault as snipping the surplus fruits off is not a particularly unpleasant job, but if you forget to do it you will get 200 very small fruits instead of 50 decent sized ones, and you don't want that./nThis apple achieves 'top 5' status for me, due to the blessed combination of regular heavy cropping, long storage qualities, and a good flavour. Add crunch if you like, this doesn't bother me personally. There are many apples with a flavour I prefer, but for the backyard and heritage grower, especially if you aspire to live 'off the grid', you have to think about storage into the winter. If I could only grow 5 apple trees, Winter King would have to be one of them. /nPS since someone will ask, the other 4 would I think be Laxton's Epicure (good flavour, early ripener) Kidd's Orange Red (heavy reliable cropper, good mid season apple, great flavour), Orleans Reinette (unique texture and flavour, crops well, cooks perfectly) and Egremont Russet, again great flavour adn farily reliable. All of the above fruits are also beautifully coloured. /n....but I'd be sorry to omit Pitmaston Pineapple, Adam's Pearmain, Court Pendu Plat, Sunset, Suntan, Ashmead's Kernel, Dabinett, Yarlington Mill.......
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