The curious case of the Washington Scarlet
Friday 1st August
On an unassuming allotment in the village of Washington, lies a tree that has become something of a mystery. This is the Washington Scarlet. At first a picture of a very quintessential, English apple tree, the huge cavity in the trunk makes the tree appear as a miracle. I read an explainer of how fruit trees survive in a cafe and my eyes fix on a certain line: ‘Never write off a fruit tree. They can do astonishing things.’The allure of the Washington Scarlet’s story is somewhat lost when, as I had to in order to discover the apple’s secrets, one scrolls a document filled with terminology and information unfamiliar to most. Though the admin perhaps does not make it seem this way, this is nonetheless life-giving work.
A DNA test showed that this was an unknown variety, so it was sent to Fruit ID for registering on their national Register of Local Cultivars as ‘Washington Scarlet’. A year later, the Steyning Community Orchard were informed that there was a DNA match to the tree they had registered, only, it was in County Meath, Ireland. Now home to a rewilding project, the Dunsany estate was previously the home of a ‘replacement scheme’ in which indigenous Irish apples were lost in favour of productive English varieties, like the Bramley. Somehow, the Washington Scarlet survived.
Most of the other apples in Dunsany’s orchards are well known varieties, planted around 1880, meaning that it is possible this apple was popular enough that it was bought from one supplier and taken to two countries. The alternative is that it made its way to Washington from Dunsany somehow, or the other way round. Either way, what is certain is that the knowledge of this apple, whether it was widespread or held only in a handful of people’s minds, has withered since then. This matters for reasons bigger than the simple fact that, according to the current owner of the Dunsany estate, it is one of the best tasting apples there. The scholar James Hatley wrote that disappearance ‘not only is to be questioned but already is a questioning, uncannily interrogating we who remain behind.’ What does it say about humankind’s priorities, and therefore about us, that we have let these apples pass us by?
‘There is no obvious connection between the two places’ the Fruit ID document states. Glaringly obvious, though, is that what connects the two trees is the people who in turn have felt connected to them, Gordon, who researched the apple in Ireland, the past and present owners of the Dunsany estate, and Roger, of Steyning Community Orchard. Bound together by the very human ambition to want to understand, in order to care. There have been other caring hands at work too, invisible though they are - in its past, this tree had had attendants who cared enough to pollard it. It is merely generational etiquette then, to keep searching for the full story. The pursuit of the Washington Scarlet’s origin will not rock the world; it will change some lives - those who get to eat it, look at it, stand beneath it, care for it - however, and that is enough.
Tallulah Brennan.
Postscript. We have taken grafts from the original tree and now have Washington Scarlet apple trees growing on our main orchard on the Memorial Playing Field and at the new Bramber Castle Orchard. If you would like one of these special trees, we graft them to order. Just send us a message for details to [email protected]