Blackmoor Estate, one of the UK’s best-known, family-run orchards, held its 39th Apple Tasting Day on Sunday, October 12.

Based in Selborne, Hampshire, the orchard’s famous Apple Tasting Day has become a hugely popular free local event and is a rare opportunity for fruit enthusiasts to taste a wide variety of old and new apple and pear varieties grown on the Blackmoor Farm.

Apple “doctors” were on hand to identify apple ailments and provide nursery tours at the tasting day and there were a huge range of other attractions including a rural craft fair and demonstrations, a community fete, local produce stalls, horse and cart rides, cakes and teas, and Morris dancing.

Blackmoor Estate is using Exosect’s ExosexCM product to help control the population of the codling moth - a destructive global pest of apples and pears. The results have been excellent and Blackmoor Estate has hosted the biggest Apple Tasting Day yet.

Alison Tod, orchard and vines product marketing manager for Exosect added: “We are very excited to be working with Blackmoor Estate, especially as they are key to their local community. It is exciting to be a part of a successful event that, after 39 years, has established itself in the community as a firm tradition for Blackmoor Estate and to know that our product is playing a role in ensuring the crop maintains its expected high level of quality.”

Blackmoor Estate has been using ExosexCM to help protect the crop from attack by the codling moth, which has the potential to ruin the entire crop.

William Wolmer from the Blackmoor Farm Estate said: “The apple and pear business is becoming more competitive and as well as this the threat from pests is growing. With the need to keep the chemical spraying of the crop to a minimum, innovative pest control solutions like Exosex are becoming essential. We are extremely pleased with the results from ExosexCM.”

Topics