Product Description

Take a stone of Sweet Larks
begins a traditional recipe from Cornwall. Sweet Larks, you will be relieved to know, are a variety of apple.

THE APPLE SOURCE BOOK is a celebration of nearly 3,000 varieties of apple we can grow in these islands, with their distinctive flavours, uses, places of origin, stories and associated customs.

With the help of Philippa Davenport, food writer for the Financial Times, Common Ground asked top cooks, chefs, food writers, gardeners, nature writers to offer recipes using named apples. Over 50 rose to the challenge including Raymond Blanc, Joanna Blythman, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bob Flowerdew, Sophie Grigson, Fergus Henderson, Joan Morgan, Richard Mabey, Rose Prince, Nigel Slater and Delia Smith.

The recipes are bounded by a wealth of useful information about apple identification, orchards, wild life, specialist nurseries, suppliers of fruit, blossom routes, community orchards as well as ideas for Apple Day, wassailing, juice pressing, cider making and a county by county gazetteer of where varieties originated.

Taking the apple as a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity that we should not let slip away, THE APPLE SOURCE BOOK demonstrates how anyone can make a difference. Written and designed with the combination of style and innovation that made ENGLAND IN PARTICULAR such a success, THE APPLE SOURCE BOOK will change the way you look at apples and orchards forever.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22800 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk
Most of us are apple lovers -- which is fortuitous, given that fruit’s health-giving properties. But a few basic recipes aside, how many of us can come up with really imaginative recipes to utilise this wonderful food? The Apple Source Book by Sue Clifford and Angela King is so incredibly useful in this area that one can forgive the authors the groan-inducing pun of the title. Clifford and King are members of Common Ground, a group devoted to educating us about every aspect of local food. Needless to say, the essays here on Britain's famous apple heritage are crammed full of the enthusiasm and inspiration one might expect from the authors and their prestigious team (which includes such luminaries as Lindsey Bareham, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Delia Smith), but there is also a great stress on retaining the identity of specific local varieties. Apart from the recipes (and more on those shortly), The Apple Source Book is brimming with fascinating information -- did you know that there are almost 3000 varieties of apples grown in the United Kingdom? A subject such as this does not lend itself to much illustration, and the few drawings here are basically functional. But the recipes! How about a whole roast goose accompanied by apples in quince jelly? Or roast fillet of pork with apples and cider? As this might convey, Clifford & King’s book is designed to make our salivatory buds activate, and that it certainly does. If, at times, the healthy properties of apples rather vanish under the succulent sauces involved, most people really won't give a damn. Supermarkets and local shops should prepare themselves for a rush on apples when this book achieves the popularity it undoubtedly will. (One caveat: the index is not particularly user-friendly.) --Barry Forshaw

Review
'An invaluable supply of anecdote, fact and recipe' --Nigel Slater, Observer

'A quite remarkable book' --Independent

'This wonderful book will inspire you to buy, cook and grow some of the 3,000 or so varieties which exist in Britain.' --National Trust Magazine

Review

'Lovely treasury of all things appley'

(Bookseller )

'Long awaited . . . both a hymn to the diversity of the fruit and an invaluable supply of anecdote, fact and recipe'

(Nigel Slater, Observer )

'A quite remarkable book . . . a sort of all-in-one apple enthusiasts kit, containing everything from a raft of celebrity apple recipes and hints on cider-making, to a gazetteer of where you can find your Ribston pippin and your Blenheim orange.'

(Michael McCarthy, Independent )

'Delightful'

(Glasgow Herald )

'Apple lovers of all shapes and sizes will adore this homage to our most famous fruit'

(Good Book Guide )

'An invaluable new point of reference . . . this informative and beautifully crafted book will open your eyes. This is a book that deserves pride of place on the coffee table as much as it does the kitchen.'

(Country File Magazine )

'This wonderful book will inspire you to buy, cook and grow some of the 3,000 or so varieties which exist in Britain.'

(National Trust Magazine )

---

Customer Reviews

An orchard of delights
A sampler of delights rather than an in depth encyclopedia, the Apple Source Book nevertheless provides a great tasting of what should be a great British past-time. Short essays cover factual details which build an historical and geographical introducion to the topic. Along with a gazeteer of apple types by location, lots of tasty apple based recipees, and a very simple how to guide for various basics, the book perhaps lacks some of the technical detail that some readers may be looking for. A reasonable list of references helps overcome this. But the key message is to look more carefully at what trees you may have in your neighbourhood, take some time to identify, and, finally, celebrate this king of fruits. Excpect an upsurge of scrumping and pagan wasail festivals in the autumn..

Apple delight
This book is a mine of information about apples and apple varieties. Also a good range of interesting recipes from celebrity contributors. Plenty of advice on how to set up an orchard.

The Source of Apple know-how
An ideal coverage of everything concerned with apple production/products. Short chapters are seemingly designed to whet your appetite & point you further. As someone planning a small orchard as part of retirement, I found a wealth of inspiration rather than the frustration that some previous books have lead to.