Baking & Cooking Favourites
Baking & Cooking Favourites
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History: Cortland apples were first bred in 1898 by Cornell University in New York and introduced in 1915. Since then, they have become one of the top fifteen apples in the US and Canada, although the majority are still grown relatively close to the university where they originated. While there are different versions of Cortland available with features such as redder skin, we are happy to offer the original!
Why We Grow It: Especially with older, popular varieties, we are always happy to offer what is, to the best of our knowledge, the original strain. Cortland is a sweet apple with crisp, juicy flesh. It is great for applesauce or drying as the flesh is slow to brown. The fruit keeps until Christmas under home storage conditions although the crispness and flavour does fade over time. This variety crops well annually and makes a good pollinator for others.
History: Cox's Orange Pippin was first grown in England in 1830 and was named after the retired brewer and horticulturalist who first bred it, Richard Cox. Its excellent flavour has earned it a spot as one of the best fresh eating apples in England where it has remained popular ever since. In fact, it still accounts for over 50% of fresh eating apples grown in the UK today. Despite its reputation, it is seldom grown commercially in North America due to its precocious nature and susceptibility to many common apple diseases.
Why We Grow It: This apple's reputation is hard to ignore with its sweet, subtle, aromatic flavour and attractive orange-red skin. Not only is it good for fresh eating, it is also popular in cider blends.
History: Crimson Passion dwarf sour cherries are one of several dwarf sour cherries developed and released by the University of Saskatchewan with the goal of creating sour cherries that were cold hardy, shorter in stature, and produced good quality fruit. This initiative began in the 1940s and Crimson Passion was released as part of the Romance series in 2004. It is the sweetest of the Romance series cherries.
Why We Grow It: Crimson Passion produces large sweet fruit, excellent for fresh eating or processing. It contains the same sugar content (20-22 Brix) as sweet cherries, but also contains the tangy flavour of sour cherries, combining the best of both worlds into one cold-hardy shrub. This variety reaches up to 10' at maturity, great for anyone with limited space.
Check our our blog post with some tasty sour cherry recipes!
History: Cripps Pink was developed by John Cripps at the Western Australia Department of Agriculture in 1973 as a cross between Lady Williams (an Australian variety) and Golden Delicious. The successful result was introduced to the market in 1985. In just ten years, Cripps Pink became an extremely popular variety and over a million trees were planted in Australia alone. This variety remains popular in many countries around the world. This apple is also known as Pink Lady which is its brand name when the fruit meets very strict criteria for quality.
Why We Grow It: Cripps Pink has a refreshing honeyed sweet-tart flavour that makes it great for fresh eating, baking, and cider. The lovely fruit, yellow with a pinkish-red blush, is slow to brown and also stores exceptionally well.
History: Cupid is a part of the Romance series of dwarf sour cherry bushes developed and released by the University of Saskatchewan in 2004. Their goal was to create cold-hardy, dwarfing bushes with good quality fruit. Cupid was likely selected for its good flavour and unusually large cherries, the largest in the Romance series.
Why We Grow It: These dark red, cold-hardy cherries have a sweet-tart flavour that can be enjoyed fresh for fans of a more astringent flavour or used for cooking, baking, and preserving. Cupid has the largest cherries of all the dwarf sour cherries in the Romance series and also ripens the latest, helping to extend the season.
History: This European plum has contentious origins, making it difficult to determine if it is very old or extremely old. The name 'damson' stems from the Latin 'damascenum' meaning 'plum of Damascus.' As the name implies, some believe this plum may have come from the ancient city of Damascus and was brought to England by the Romans, making this plum thousands of years old. While this theory has been highly contested, there is ample evidence to prove that Damson plums have been grown in England for hundreds of years. It was introduced to the US in 1800 and was a a favourite due to its adaptability to its new home.
Why We Grow It: Damson produces small round clingstone fruit with a deep blue/purple skin and spicy yellow flesh. They are sweet enough to eat but also have some astringency which makes them less palatable than other varieties. However, they are superb for cooking, preserving, and making jam. The tree blooms late which allows it to avoid early frosts and this variety is self-fertile.
Species: Prunus sp
History: These seedlings are grown from Damson plum seeds collected from our orchard. Damson is a plum that may stem from antiquity!
Why We Grow It: Seedling fruit trees are a great way to add some diversity and mystery to your garden or orchard! The parent variety, Damson, produces small blue fruit that are sweet and a little spiced. They are suitable for fresh eating and great for jams, preserves, etc. For a more detailed description, see the Damson page on our website here.
Please Note: Since plums tend to stay true to type more than apples, these seedlings will likely bear a strong resemblance to their parent variety. However, any specific information listed on this page should be taken with a grain of salt as there may be some variation from the parent tree.
History: Delbarestivale was developed by Delbard, a nursery in France, in the 1950s. Likely named as a portmanteau of 'Delbard' and 'estivale' (translated from French as 'summer') due to its early ripening time, this variety goes by many other names including Delcorf, Monidel, Dalili, and Ambassy. It was bred in an attempt to create an improved version of Golden Delicious. Although not quite as popular as Golden Delicious, it is still grown commercially in parts of France and England and the Royal Horticultural Society awarded it the Award of Garden Merit in 1998.
Why We Grow It: This French apple is very sweet but balanced nicely with a sharp flavour. The flesh is aromatic and crisp and the skin is a lovely, stripey bi-colour with reddish streaks overlaying green. The apples store quite well for an early-ripening variety, although they do tend to bruise easily.
Why We Grow It: Discovery is a slightly sweet apple with noticeable acidity, and under optimal conditions it can have a strawberry flavour. Like many early apples, it is great for sauce. The fruit is on the smaller side and has a flatter shape with greenish-yellow skin overlaid with a bright red blush. The red can sometimes stain the cream-coloured flesh inside, providing some visual appeal. The tree boasts some resistance to scab and although it can take a while to start bearing fruit, once it does it bears quite reliably.
Species: Vaccinium corymbosum, hybridized with V. ashei and V. darrowi
History: Draper blueberries were developed at Michigan State University by renowned plant breeder James Hancock who has also developed several other notable blueberry varieties and other fruits such as the Redhaven peach. He worked with Arlen Draper, a blueberry breeder from the US Department of Agriculture, for 14 years to breed and test different varieties for commercial use, picking Draper due to its many excellent qualities. Named for Arlen Draper, this variety has quickly become an extremely popular commercial variety due to the size and quality of the fruit.
Why We Grow It: Draper produces large, firm fruit with an excellent sweet flavour. They are great for eating fresh or can be used in baking, jams, etc like other blueberries! The large size of the berries makes them good for u-pick orchards and the bushes stay slightly smaller than other highbush varieties! They also store better and longer than other blueberry varieties and ripen at the same time.
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