Apples from Kazakhstan to Lenswood
Posted on: Sun 27 May 2018
Apples definitely aren’t just apples when you hear Warwick Billings trace the history of our limited modern varieties back to the myriad variations in their ancestral home high in the mountains of Kazakhstan.
You could say that Warwick comes from apple stock himself – from West Country England and North-West France. Which comes through in his making of Lobo Cider at Lenswood, and the heady apple brandy derived from his cider.
“In those ancient forests, there are tens of thousands of varieties. They say there are apples as big as footballs, apples that taste like tomatoes, or pineapple. We have selected only a tiny fraction.”
On Gastronaut he discusses how mountain bears helped select some of the sweeter varieties for propagation.
Image provided by Bruce Guerin with permission of Warwick Billings
