Reviving Britain’s lost apple heritage & turning it into a natural snack brand
Apple Natural’s Julie Bailey is reviving Britain's lost apple heritage. She's growing over 300 heritage apple trees, reviving varieties most people have never heard of & turning them into handmade fruit leathers that are as good for you as they are delicious.
A sheet of fruit leather Shreds coming out of the dehydrator
Julie didn't start out as a farmer. Before moving to Cornwall 23 years ago, she worked in London's media & entertainment industry. When she & her husband moved to the area they discovered the land had a variety of trees growing on it, although like many others it had been cleared, known as scrubbed, during the war. In 2016, they began replanting. What grew from those trees became Apple Natural.
Apple Natural makes fruit leathers, which is one of the oldest ways of preserving fruit. At Apple Natural, the process starts with heritage apples from the orchard being harvested during the autumn. They’re turned into purée, then dehydrated for 6-10 hours at low temperatures, to maintain the goodness. The result is an intensely flavoured sheet, which is then shredded into strips that look a lot like pasta.
Apple Natural’s Apple Shreds packaging
Julie makes sure that everything in the range is made with as much of the goodness & nutrients intact, containing only natural sugars & no additives or preservatives. The skins are used so there’s still fibre in there & plenty of nutrients. Unlike drinking apple juice or a smoothie, the fibre content helps your body know when to say stop.
Most of us grew up on Gala, Pink Lady or Granny Smith apples, all grown for sweetness. Julie grows over 60 varieties, most of which are local to the Tamar Valley & you probably won’t see any of them in a supermarket: Discovery, Cornish Aromatic, Ashmead's Kernel, Long Keeper & one called Pear Apple that looks a lot like a pear but isn't.
The fact they’re not sold in supermarkets isn’t because they don’t taste amazing it’s because they aren’t sweet enough & don’t necessarily have great visual appeal. What’s even more strange is that most apples in the supermarket are imported, even though we have amazing varieties growing here.
Assorted flavours of Apple Natural’s fruit leather Shreds
Apple Natural started in Julie's kitchen & today it’s run from a former Dartmoor Rangers building alongside the orchard. The business built its strongest foundations during Covid, when Julie began supplying Hodmedod's, a retailer whose values align closely with her own.
She's been approached by big companies wanting to buy at scale but she's turned them down. Apple Natural makes a small batch, seasonal product, which doesn’t work at scale. She grows the apples, makes the product, packages it in home compostable pouches, there’s no intensive factory production. Apple Natural is making a truly artisan product that’s as natural & connected to the ecosystem as possible.
The “Shreds” come in flavours like 100% Apple, Hint of Raspberry, Hint of Blackcurrant, Hint of Blackberry, Hint of Fennel, Hint of Seaweed, Hint of Beetroot. There’s other flavours too including Hint of Sea Buckthorn, which is almost citrusy & packed with omegas. Most of the flavours have won awards & all of them are real food.
Apple Natural goes to show what real food is supposed to mean.
Watch the full conversation on YouTube to hear Julie talk about:
What a fruit leather is & how it’s made makes all the difference
Why heritage apples & supermarket apples are virtually different fruits
The truth about organic certification & what it doesn't tell you about small producers
How Julie went from London's film & theatre world to planting 300 apple trees in Cornwall
Why she turned down offers to supply big companies
What school food is really doing to children's relationship with healthy eating
The flavour that’s surprisingly delicious & why seaweed deserves to join in
WHERE TO BUY:
Website: applenatural.co.uk
Retail: hodmedods.co.uk
LINKS:
Website: applenatural.co.uk
Instagram: @apple_natural_cornwall