Tesco has said it is testing six heritage apple varieties grown on Prince Charles’ estate with a view to potentially listing them in-store,Western Daily Press has reported.
Land owned by Prince Charles is now growing 1,000 rare and heritage apple varieties and the royal is said to be looking at increasing the acreage, the newspaper said.
The trees are being managed by David Wilson at Home Farm, close to the Prince of Wales’ Highgrove Estate, with rootstocks obtained from Frank P Matthews nursery, in Worcestershire, and from the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm, in Kent.
Prince Charles' heritage apple orchards form part of his desire to help develop a gene bank for rare apple varieties, with some retail potential, as juice produced by the apple trees is already sold at the farm shop on Highgrove Estate.
'The main reason for planting the orchard was genetic conservation, which is a theme the Prince of Wales regards as one of the central strands of sustainability,” Wilson toldWestern Daily Press.
'We depend on fewer genes than ever for our food due to control of breeding programmes by global companies.”
Tesco has announced support for The Prince of Wales, and said it is testing six varieties, with a view to stocking them in their stores, the paper reported.
Tesco technologist John Worth told the Western Daily Press: 'We are working with Brogdale in Kent to look at whether heritage varieties could be grown on a commercial scale.'
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