Some Interesting Apples 2025
18 October 2025
Some Interesting Apples Taste Trial 2025
Saturday 18 October 2025
11am – 3pm
11am – 3pm (orchard tour at 1:30 pm)
Drop-in, no booking needed
Continuing the success of the previous iterations, Kestle Barton is pleased to host the 2025 Some Interesting Apples pomological exhibition and drop-in taste trials – led by William Arnold, James Fergusson and Caitlin DeSilvey.
During the day on Saturday visitors are invited to personally engage with wilding apple submissions and offer discerning thoughts and feedback. You will have the opportunity to taste selected seedling fruit and discuss the trial process with the project leaders. Participation will contribute to the ongoing development of the project.
The session will include a tour of the Wilding Mother Orchard at Penarvon, where selected apples identified through previous taste trials are being propagated in a dedicated orchard. The tour will leave from Kestle Barton at 1:30pm.
About the project:
Some Interesting Apples (SIA) is a project co-founded by William Arnold and James Fergusson, the primary aim of which is to record and, where characteristics make desirable, preserve wilding apples (i.e., Malus domestica growing on their own roots as the result of a discarded core). Having grown and often thrived in seemingly unfavourable circumstances, these trees present opportunities to propagate hardy novel cultivars, something of ever-increasing relevance in an erratic climate. As warmer winters and drier summers threaten the viability of traditional UK heritage varieties, the ability of M. domestica to adapt makes apple wildings a potentially valuable resource for future food production. SIA works in partnership with the University of Exeter, the National Trust, Forest for Cornwall and Kestle Barton.
Public donations of fruit – strictly those grown from accidental seedlings NOT orchard or garden apples – are highly encouraged. In order to consider your apple for inclusion in the trials we require a minimum of four unbruised fruit and a ///what.three.words geotagged location.
For details of how to submit please contact Kestle Barton or drop your apples off at the Environment and Sustainability Institute on the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus (w3w///fields.clicker.young) from October 6-13.
