Dissecting a Bramley's Seedling

There isn't much doubt about this one.  It's a hunky, green, heavy cooking apple, with tart flesh and a rosy stripe where the sun hit it.

The surprise to us was just how pink, even red they can get.  They are only ever green in the store.  But our sources say that garden-grown Bramleys do develop a red blush where exposed to the sun. 

Let's start with the obvious qualities. For reference I'm using Rosie Sanders' gorgeous book that I received for my birthday, The Apple Book, published by Frances Lincoln Ltd. (2010) and also the Garden Apple ID website.

Size: "Large to very large" - Yes.

Shape: "Flat-round. Flattened at base and apex. Five crowned at apex. Irregular large ribs... Irregular. Frequently lop-sided." - Yes. 

Skin: "Bright green becoming pale greenish-yellow.Can be... flushed with pale ochre with some broad broken stripes and dots of greyed-red.  Lenticels conspicuous dark grey-brown or green dots."

 You can see the lenticels (obvious pores) on a few of these, more obvious against the green skin.
 
The Apple Identification site adds: "Green but can develop flush and stripes later in a garden or orchard (not in the supermarket!)  Skin becomes very greasy when stored."

We certainly found that the apples high up in the tree did end up with amazing pink stripes, which we hadn't expected in a Bramley. 

Stalk: "Stout" and "Short." - Yes, very stubby, not very stem-like I have to say. 

Cavity: "Medium to deep, generally wide.  Partly lined with streaky light grey-brown russet, radiating over shoulder." - Yes, see the russet shoulder on these apples.

Eye: "Large... Very downy."  - Yes, see the bottom of these apples, with quite wide open eyes.

Now let's take a look inside.

Core: "Median. Axile, open." - Yeah, whatever.

Core line: "Median, sometimes toward basal."- This is complicated but has to do with the line you can see as an arc around the core, and where it meets the tube (the gap under the flowery bit).  I guess it looks kind of in the middle on this one.

Stamens: "Median" - OK?

Seeds: "Skinny"

Flesh is described by Sanders as "firm, coarse-textured and juicy" and "cooks to a pale cream fluff".  The Apple ID site adds "ideal cooker"- Bramleys are known and sold for that purpose.

I experimented with putting them in a pie, with the remaining Stirling Castles, to great success.

Tree: "very vigorous" - This is by far our largest apple tree with lots of branches and vigorous growth.

I think there is little doubt that this is a Bramley's Seedling.  Bramley trees require two other pollinators, so I suppose it makes sense that the three apple trees were all planted close to one another.  Though, with an entire forest of crab-apples nearby, would we ever need to worry?