Here’s an interesting thing. As regular readers will know, I’ve recently been populating my plot with hand-picked carefully-chosen apples. But I have an interloper. I have no idea what it is but I will bet my best gardening boots it ain’t what it says it is on the label…

I adore russet apples. I love that dry, grown up flavour, the nuttiness, the fabulous velvety skin, the warmth, the crunch, the slightly soft millimetre on the outside, everything. And although I’ve gone for some very rare varieties, I’m not one for snubbing something brilliant just because it’s commonly available.

I really like Egremont Russet. It’s a good doer, it crops reliably and it tastes fantastic. So I bought a couple more for the plot, to stand sentinel either side of a path entrance, eventually to bow over and kiss in the middle to make an arch.

Except one of them most certainly isn’t a russet.

Any ideas, folks? They’re not ripe yet so I can’t taste them properly. Perhaps I’ll pop along to Brogdale’s apple festival again. Any excuse…