Pictured the last 3 apples stored over the winter of an old dessert/cooking apple first catalogued in 1832 that is well suited to wet upland conditions being very late cropping and resistant to scab. Thought to be extinct in the 1980s, today it seems to flourish in nursery catalogues. The Square Nine is a variety of apple that is square and usually at least nine inches in circumference in a normal year - I have had 12 inchers off the tree that was a veteran when my dad was a lad and he is 95 so it must be one of the oldest in the country as apple trees rarely make it to 200 years. But perhaps not the oldest in the world as my Kurdish friend, Sai , informed me these apples reminded him of home when I gave him some over the winter.
Apples are not native to the UK but originate from Kazakhstan so it figures that the Square Nine of Treflach would have been a trophy brought back from that part of the world by an explorer and a pip from these good storing fruit would make the journey here easily. In Kurdish culture when a boy and a girl fall in love they pick the best and biggest apple and stud it with cloves to preserve it - representing love, peace and prosperity. This continues to be a cherished custom to this day.
Calling it The Treflach Square Nine seems strange as its qualities are many. In spring the blossom is so intense the sight and smell is wonderful. The fruit is so sweet and so late in the season that wildlife feed on it and I am told with age all trees have a lean a bit like an old person… This one certainly does. I am sure in Kurdistan this tree has a noble name reflecting its rank in the orchard. When cut open the apples have beautiful white flesh with very little core and hardly any pips but I have managed to get two to germinate this spring so will discover their ancestry in the years to come.