If I asked you to name five varieties of cooking apple, the chances are that you would come up with ‘Bramley’ straight away… and then possibly struggle. However, if you asked the same question a hundred years ago, you would be given a long list of names, depending on season and locality. Varieties like ‘Greenup’s Pippin’, ‘Balsam’, ‘Lord Derby’, ‘Emperor Alexander’ – all were well-known, widely grown and feted for their unique cooking qualities. This month we will take a look at the long history of the cooking apple in the UK, see why ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ came to be the ubiquitous culinary variety and look at alternatives that deserve a space in your garden.