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Kent Food - Food From Kent

Kent is the apple of the country’s eye with Produced in Kent’s apple trail launch

Kent looks set to be the apple of the country’s eye this Autumn as the nation celebrates the bi-centenary of the Bramley apple and attention turns to the launch of an updated apple trail guide across the ‘Garden of England’.

The free, fold-out trail blazer, entitled ‘Apple Source’, is the initiative of food and drink champions Produced in Kent, and looks set to give readers a delightful, up-to-date taste and experience of Kent’s apples, ciders, juices and orchards. Trail users can crunch their way through Kent’s fascinating apple growing and cider making heritage and enjoy a fabulous ‘fruity walk’ through the county’s Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) – just as the apples are ripening for harvesting during September.

‘Apple Source’ is entirely free of charge and will be unveiled at Eurofair with The Kent Food & Drink Festival from Friday 25 September to Sunday 27 September at Dane John Gardens (www.canterburyeurofair.co.uk). For ‘food tourists’ visiting Kent for the day ‘Apple Source’ is also widely available throughout the Autumn from tourist information centres across the county and online on www.producedinkent.co.uk

The guide, complete with route map, details a stunning three mile circular walk which starts in Chilham and takes you along the beautiful North Downs Way, past an old Bramley orchard and returning to modern fruit farms within the Downs’ AONB.

Julie Monkman, manager at Produced in Kent, said: “The old adage ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ rings true with the launch of the updated ‘Apple Source’. With the concern about childhood obesity and ‘five a day’, the guide shows how apples are one of the best sweet treats available to us and are packed with vitamins and minerals and high levels of antioxidants.”

The trail guide includes listings of the county’s 12 ‘homegrown’ cider works and juice companies, some of which sell direct from the farm gate and offer tours for great family days out; whilst there are also details of twenty independent local shops and information on where to find farmers’ markets selling many varieties of apples grown in Kent.

The guide includes Kent’s long association with the cultivation of apples and it was for its 25,000 acres of apple orchards at the end of the 19th century that the county was first dubbed the glorious ‘Garden of England’. The intriguing apple and cider historical timeline in the free guide runs from 900BC, through the founding of the first apple orchards in the reign of Henry VIII, to the modern day apple and cider production of the 21st century.

There are also details of Brogdale, near Faversham, which is home to the National Fruit Collection and houses an incredible 2,300 varieties of apples, with tours running from March until early November.

Julie Monkman added: “Unusually, Kent is one of the few areas that still grows such a wide variety of apples, many of which are planted and grow in the Kent Downs AONB and this enables us to recommend a truly memorable day out in Kent’s beautiful countryside. As the whole country prepares to celebrate the bicentenary of the Bramley, the ‘Apple Source’ apple trail is Produced in Kent’s free gift to the county and visitors to the ‘Garden of England’ this Autumn.”

Visit www.producedinkent.co.uk for more information.

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