Cornish Orchard Growing Future Apples from Tossed Cores

The Some Interesting Apples(SIA) project develops new locally-distinctive and potentially climate-resilient apple varieties from trees growing from discarded hedgerow and wayside cores. In 2023 SIA worked with Forest for Cornwall and the National Trust to establish the Wilding Mother Orchard (WMO) near Helford, Cornwall. WMO is the first UK orchard solely dedicated to the cultivation of selected wild-grown chance-seedling apples.

The logic is simple. Every apple that grows from seed is a unique new variety and the apple genome is huge – bigger than the human genome infact! This extreme heterozygosity (yes, it’s a word) means that each apple growing from a casually discarded snack has the potential to become a useful new variety adapted to a local climatic niche. Searching for appealing apples in this genetic tombola of mouth-puckering crabs and exhaust-fumed Royal Gala offspring could be a fool’s errand, but we have been trying and we think we are starting to succeed!

Since William Arnold and James Fergusson founded SIA in 2019 the project has located and mapped over 600 unique apple wildings in Cornwall’s hedges, verges and marginal lands, identifying each tree through a unique what3words tag. Kestle Barton rural arts space has hosted three editions of the SIA public taste trails, which feed into a process of selecting potential new cultivars. In 2022 SIA began to work with Caitlin DeSilvey of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus to develop ideas for shared research.

In February 2024, 80 apple rootstocks were planted at the Wilding Mother Orchard site and grafting of the wilding scions (cuttings from parent trees) began a few weeks later. The National Trust and the SIA team will jointly manage and maintain the orchard as a community and research resource. WMO will in time become a sister site to the National Trust’s famous Mother Orchard of regional varieties at Cotehele.

The project is currently working to secure funding for ongoing research, including genetic fingerprinting of the selected wildings and participatory activities to address the ecological problem of plant blindness.

Follow Instagram @someinterestingapplesfor updates about the project and opportunities and to get involved.

The paper reproduced here was published to coincide with the April 2023 blossom time workshop and field trip in collaboration with Caitlin DeSilvey of the Environment & Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter. For best readability view on desktop in full-screen mode. 

48 Wild Apples from West Cornwall photographed at comparative scale
Displayed at Kestle Barton as part of the trial Some Interesting Apples: Wild & Seedling Pomological Exhibition. 



Key to apples. Unless submitted otherwise the name of each apple is the what3words cooridnates of the location of the tree. 

Row 1: acoustics.driven.quest, aquatints.frightens.composes, baseline.plugs.field, beaten.profiled.thinnest, builders.pitchers.prune, Carn Brea Red Streak

Row 2: Chacewater 30mph Russet, ghosts.taxpayers.given, cherish.immediate.looms, chuck.stunner.push, commander.dwelles.unroll, contains.complies.toolkit

Row 3: driver.accordion.push, emails.paranoid.workflow, gallons.grub.coverage, genetics.crescendo.alienates, hung.broadcast.examples, inspected.splinters.arts

Row 4: Just Delights Penryn, lifeboats.tasters.rejected, lossed.flosses.jugs, magpie.offstage.beside, mutual.assembles.spout, Nancekuke Long-Stem

Row 5: Nancekuke No.2, Nancekuke Non-pareil, nightcap.gloves.amplifier, nooks.safari.shops, nuggets.joys.exposing, pens.housework.taxi

Row 6: Polwheale’s Boden Vean, props.indulges.rocker, Radnor Road A30, Wheal Peevor Cottage, rank.chugging.gains, reactions.paraded.badly

Row 7: reseller.daily.bookings, Ruan Minor Holywell, seasick.looms.newsprint, Sinns Common No.2, Swanpool Maenporth Footpath, timed.blunders.ally

Row 8: unclaimed.magpie.twitches, unframed.deeds.pound, used.found.samples, visa.octagon.himself, Wheal Peevor, Cloudy Brindle