SUNSET Raised at Ightham in Kent in 1918. One of the many varieties raised from Cox's Pippin, and with a similar flavour. It is more reliable to grow, though not particularly vigorous. The flesh is firm rather than crisp but juicy and with a very rich flavour. Fruit is small to medium sized, heavily flushed with red and orange and ripe in September. The trees have good blossom and crop well. Stores until December.
  

 
SUNTAN An apple raised in 1956 by H.M. Tydeman or in 1955 by Dr Alston, both at East Malling Research Station, Kent. It was said to be a cross between two very traditional varieties, Cox's Pippin and Court Pendu Plat. Attractive appearance, with bright orange-red skin streaked with red and with russet patches. The apples are crisp, sweet and aromatic, but with fruity acidity, especially after a month or so in storage. Vigorous, hardy trees, which are late flowering, so good for cold areas. Triploid. Stores until late winter.

 

SUSSEX MOTHER A nineteenth century dessert apple, described by Hogg in 1884, and still found growing in Sussex, especially around Heathfield. The green apples are conical and angular, become yellow, sometimes with a flush, sprinkled with russet dots. It ripens in early September, and has soft flesh with a sweet, spicy taste. Trees have a spreading habit.

 
SWEET COPPIN An old Devon cider apple, also favoured in Somerset. It is thought to date back to the early 18th century and was notably popular in the Exeter area. It is a ‘Sweet’ in cider terms, making a very gentle cider. The apples are medium to large with green skin, becoming golden, with occasional flushes, ripe towards the end of October. Middle flowering.

 

SWEET LADING First recorded in the London Horticultural Society collection catalogue of 1826, it was described as a cider variety in the 1842 catalogue. Hogg said it was used for cooking and cider, though probably best for cider, in 1884. At the Apple and Pear conference in 1934 it was considered a culinary apple. It has also been an eating apple, but it is probably too blandly sweet for most tastes. Hogg said it was common in East Sussex and Kent. Medium sized fruit, roundish, and with some ribs around the crown. The skin is green-yellow in the shade, but ripening to bright yellow, with a few broken streaks of crimson in the sun. There are traces of thin cinnamon russet. The flesh is white, firm, not juicy, and very sweet, but with no acidity. Hogg suggested that, if used alone, it would probably make very sweet cider. Ripe in November.

 
SYKEHOUSE RUSSET First described in 1818. Originally from Sykehouse in Yorkshire. Small golden apples, sometimes with patches and streaks of red, with some russet, and crisp, juicy, yellow flesh, sweetly flavoured. A late dessert apple, storing until February. Good crops.

 

TAYLOR’S FAVOURITE A good old apple found by Hilary Wilson in an orchard in the Lyth Valley, Westmorland. The orchard contains several interesting old and mostly anonymous varieties. It is owned by Desmond Holmes whose family settled at Whitebeck in 1747, and still sold fruit to the market until the 1960s. This apple is curious because it is an excellent, sweet and rich dessert apple but a little too large for the mouth. The firm but yielding texture is also more like a culinary apple. When cooked it softens but keeps its shape completely, developing a rich tangy flavour, with no need for sugar. Ripe at the end of September in the South.

 
TEIGN HARVEY An old Devon cider apple which appears to have disappeared entirely from history without ever leaving a reference. We came across the name in the USDA Plant Genetic Resources Unit at Cornell University, in America, suggesting a cider apple from the Teign valley in Devon, though there was no historic record of its existence. Some research revealed that there used to be a Teign-Harvey Farm in Stoke-in-Teign-Head, close to the coast, just south of the Teign estuary. Norman Howard, an 80 year old retired farmer of the area, knew the farm and reported that little of it remains. While he believes there are no cider trees there now, he recalls cider growing in the area between Shaldon and Combe Cellars from his youth. He also recalls visiting a farm in Totnes, where the farmer spoke of Teign Harvey apples. Usda received the variety from England in 1949, and we received it back in 2005. The new trees have now fruited and it is undoubtedly a cider apple. It seems a free spur bearer and fruits young and abundantly. The small to medium sized apples are flat, round and obscurely ribbed. The skin is a waxy yellow with only traces of russet lines near the stem and eye. The skin develops a warm blush in the sun. The eye is closed with erect segments in quite a deep basin. The stalk is very short and stout. The flesh is hard, not that juicy, moderately tannic and sharp, with some sweetness.