Fruit Varieties

An Eakring village survey in 2020 found that the fruit most people thought they would use from a community orchard were first plums, then pears, followed by eating apples and cooking apples.

Several people suggested varieties that grow well here and traditional varieties they would like to see.

These preferences, combined with RHS recommendations, gave us a mix of heritage and modern types of plums, pears and apples.

The numbers on this list are marked on the map below to show where each variety is growing.

1 & 2 Plum: Victoria.  Fruit a deep carmine rose. Wonderful flavour dessert or jams.

3 Pear: Clapp's Favourite.  Yellow-green fruit flushed with red. Very juicy.

4 Plum: Yellow Pershore.  Canary yellow fruit with firm flesh. Great for jam.

5 Pear: Triomphe de Vienne.  Intense sweet, spicy flavour. Melting and juicy.

6 Plum: Blue Tit.  A well-flavoured blue plum. Sweet and juicy when fully ripe.

7 Crab Apple.  Planted by Eakring WI to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.  A native wild apple used for crab apple jelly.

8 Eating Apple:  Radford Beauty. Raised in Nottingham, in 1883. Good flavour.

9 Eating Apple:  Pickering's Seedling.  An old Notts variety. Sweet, scented.

10 Pear: Louis Bonne of Jersey.  Small fruit, sweet, juicy and full of flavour.

11 Plum: Laxton's Cropper.  Reddish-purple fruit. Fine flavour, juicy and keep well.

12 Pear: Beth.  Small, pale yellow with a pink flush.  Juicy and sweet. 

13 Pear: Conference.  Long, narrow, yellowish-green fruit. Well-flavoured and juicy.

14 Eating Apple: Ashmead’s Kernel.  Russet apple from the 1700s. Pear drops flavour. 

15 Plum: Cambridge Gage.  Small round green fruit with a fantastic flavour.

16 Plum: Merryweather (Damson).  Introduced in 1907 in Southwell. Large round blue-black fruit. Good for jams and chutneys.

17 Cooking/Eating Apple: Charles Ross.  Green-yellow, red stripes. Like Cox.

18 Cooking Apple: Peasgood’s Nonsuch.  Gold with red stripes. Juicy sweet aroma.

19 Pear: Onward.  Sweet, rich and buttery.

20 Cooking Apple: Newton Wonder.  Large and colourful with a sweet aroma.

21 Cooking Apple: Bramley.  Excellent cooking apple raised 1813 in Southwell. Perfect for pies!

22 Plum: Reine Claude de Bavay (Gage).  Straw-yellow fruit, a rich gage flavour.

23 Plum: Marjorie's Seedling.  Purple fruit. Firm, juicy and quite sweet. 

24 Pear: Doyenne du Comice.  Pale green-yellow fruit with pink flushing. Delicious.

25 Pear: Winter Nelis.  Small, yellow-green fruit with a sweet juicy flavour.

26 Pear: Concorde.  Pale yellow russet fruit, buttery flavour that melts in the mouth.

27 Eating Apple: Blenheim Orange.  Yellow with a red flush. Nutty flavour.

28 Eating Apple: Nottingham Pippin.  Raised in Nottingham in the late 1800's. Lovely flavour, crisp, juicy and sweet with a touch of acidity.

29 Eating Apple: Kidd's Orange Red.  Large fruit, sweet, aromatic and juicy.

30 Eating Apple: Superb.  Yellow, slight red flush. Excellent flavour, sweet and crisp.

31 Eating Apple: Aromatic Russet.  Russet with a red flush. A hint of lemon later.

32 Cooking Apple: Howgate Wonder.  Yellow-green with orange stripes.

33 Old Pear: Unknown variety.  Survivor from an earlier orchard. Small, sweet fruit (but avoid the bitter fruit from the low root stock suckers!)

Numbers on the diagram refer to varieties in the list above.