“Gene bank” of apples at Prince Charles’s country estate.

1,000 different varieties of apples are being grown including historic apple trees, by Prince Charles. Home Farm near Highgrove includes a variety brought to England by a Roman general and another from a tree once grown in Isaac Newton’s Lincolnshire garden. Genetic conservation is the main reason for the big variety of apples, some of which have been obtained through grafts taken by Frank P Matthews nursery, Worcestershire, from the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Faversham, Kent which has over 2,000 varieties of the fruit.

Highgrove shop sells apple juice apparently made from 1,000 apple varieties and there are plans for a new orchard to be planted with the best-tasting varieties.

Two popular varieties are Ashmeads Kernel and the anti-seed flavoured apple – Ellison’s Orange.

The running costs for these ventures are currently paid for by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Cherishing the apple was also a popular activity of Henry V111 who obtained new varieties from Flanders and France 500 years ago.

Prince Charles insists that all ventures with apples as well as with all other grown produce should be managed organically as are the animals. That is his style.