Spread over 160 acres (the size of 90 football pitches) near Faversham, Kent, you’ll find Brogdale Collections – an educational charity which provides access to the National Fruit Collection. The orchards on this site hold over 3000 varieties of fruit trees and are a living museum of fruit heritage in the UK.
The National Fruit Collection (still owned by tax payers) goes back over 200 years. Back in the day, fruit would come in from overseas and people would compare it to something they knew locally. Because of this however, people called fruit whatever they fancied. One variety of apple, the London Pipin, for example, had over 100 names. Something needed to be done to centralise them and the National Fruit Collection was born.
After World War I, DEFRA (the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) wanted to feed more people in a healthier way and the site started breeding research. The University of Reading are now the curators of the National Fruit Collection – think of it like the V&A of the fruit collecting world.
To spend a day at Brogdale (we highly recommend venturing out on one of their guided tours) is to learn about the incredible variety of fruit available in the UK. For what we’ve come to know as apple varieties in grocery stores is just the very tip of the iceberg.
What you’ll find at Brogdale:
404 varieties of cherries
332 varieties of plums & gages
48 varieties of nuts
2131 varieties of apples with fantastic names such as “Bloody Ploughman,” “St Edmund’s Pippin” and “Knobby Russet”. The oldest variety of apple in the collection today dates back to 450 AD – the Decio Apple brought over by the Romans.
523 varieties of pears
19 varieties of quince
4 varieties of medlars (an odd looking fruit popular in medieval times which Shakespeare famously referred to as “dog’s ass”.)
Keep an eye out for a very humble looking little sapling with an extraordinary story behind it. Brogdale was the recipient of one of eight young trees from the pips of Isaac Newton’s apple tree to have been carried into space with British ESA Astronaut Tim Peake. The pips spent six months floating in microgravity as part of the “Pips in Space” project before returning to earth in 2016. The UK Space Agency, the National Trust and the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew worked together to help the seeds break dormancy after their return.
Panzer’s is delighted to make fruit from Brogdale available to Panzer’s customers when it is in season, from cherries to plums and from apples to pears. We hope you discover something new each year. We hope you’ll appreciate that fruit tastes better the day after it is picked from the tree just two hours outside of London. And even better when picked directly off the tree in Kent. For more information on Brogdale Collections and the National Fruit Collection, visit their website here and join one of the guided tours or explore their corporate volunteering days.
We quite simply adore Brogdale Collections, the Kent based charity that provides heritage fruit sales and public access to the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm.
The National Fruit Collection, one of the largest collections of temperate fruits in the world, has been based at Brogdale since 1952. Set in 150 acres of luscious Kent countryside, they are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year.
The objectives of the Collections are to act as:
A ‘gene bank’ conserving the biodiversity of fruit
A source of plant material for propagation, research, and breeding
A living reference library of ‘heritage’ fruit varieties
From spring blossom to autumn harvest, they welcome thousands of visitors each season to enjoy guided tours, fruit themed family events, school trips, rural courses and of course fruit tastings.
On a guided tour you can learn about ancient and modern growing methods, the history of fruit, it’s cultivation and most importantly the reasons for keeping this living museum. In cherry season, try some 400 varieties, including the beautiful white cherries. You will see the Decio apple that dates to Roman times and sample fruit that Henry VIII enjoyed. By apple season there are over 2000 varieties to taste, including the pineapple flavoured Pitmaston Pine apple or the super ugly but delicious Knobby Russet! We highly encourage a visit or corporate picking event!
Britain’s longest-standing and bestselling guide to dining out is back after a two-year hiatus – and they’ve given Panzer’s their top restaurant recommendations for Kent.
As we celebrate 70 years of the Brogdale Collection, one of our favourite suppliers of cherries, apples and pears, the Good Food Guide’s editor Elizabeth Carter recommends give restaurants within less than half an hour drive of Brogdale to eat after visiting the orchard in the garden of England.
A crop of restaurants to visit in Kent
With the rich Kent countryside home to fantastic places like the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, and stuffed with artisan growers and producers, it’s obvious that Kent is no longer a place just to pass through on the way to the Channel ports – it is there to be explored. Whether you are booked onto one of Brogdale Collection’s daily tours or short courses, or are just taking a gentle orchard walk, you’ll need feeding afterwards. Fortunately, this part of Kent is a magnate for talented chefs whose top priority is to promote the wealth of fantastic produce on their doorstep.
Suggesting a rare level of reliability and consistency this Kent veteran on Brogdale Collection’s doorstep, has been run for more than four decades by David and Rona Pitchford. It is a country restaurant of inestimable class, with boutique bedrooms cited as further incentive for bookmarking a visit. Staff do their level best from greeting to farewell to make all feel welcome, and the kitchen’s output – a very good-value set lunch and reasonably priced tasting menu – is dependent on seasonal and local supplies (from Stour Valley game to Kentish lamb), as well as produce from its own kitchen garden. Garden beetroot, for example, is served with locally made goat’s cheese, hazelnuts, basil pesto and pickled shallots, while fillet of sea bass is served with confit potato, prawns, spinach, samphire and red pepper sauce. The cheeseboard is British (of course) and soufflés – the raspberry especially – have been highly praised.
It has long been one of the top dining destinations in the country – a remarkable achievement considering its refusal to conform to the dictates of fine dining. Indeed, The Sportsman could hardly be lower key if it tried, evident in the paper napkins and scrubbed wooden tables. While it is well worth the pilgrimage, be warned, a table here does require planning well ahead. Stephen Harris’s vision is delightfully simple, obsessively influenced by the raw materials available on the doorstep. His produce-first approach can be seen in the constantly changing five-course tasting menu (with several choices per course), which integrates local ingredients with some up-to-date flourishes and a good measure of comfort – from crab, with carrots and hollandaise, wild sea bass with lobster and herbs and vegetables from the garden, or pink, succulent roast lamb with artichoke hearts, to elderflower posset or strawberry and custard tart.
If there’s one thing better than a good farmers’ market, then it’s a good farmers’ market that does the cooking for you. This former railway shed next to Canterbury West station is just that – alongside the stalls selling local fruit and veg, meat, cheese, fish and more, there’s a sit-down restaurant with a simple, bare-brick fit-out, amiable service, diners generating a lively buzz, and exactly the right take on seasonality. The result is a blackboard roster of up-to-the-minute dishes that might offer (on a warm summer’s day) a simple dish of tomato, anchovy, basil and croûtons or raw beef with beetroot, green peppercorn and mayonnaise, followed perhaps by hake with tomato, mussels, clams and kalamata olives with aioli, or a roast summer quash with white beans and walnut dressing. To drink there are local ales, ciders, and there’s a selection of Kentish wines on the brief European wine list.
The candyfloss-pink frontage and walls crowded with maritime pictures announce one of Whitstable’s most cherishable assets, a seafood haven since the mid-Victorian era, still serving boat-fresh fish and shellfish to the discerning. A roaring takeaway trade might send you off with a prawn and crab tartlet to treasure, and there are seasonal pre-orderable boxes to furnish the most sumptuous beach picnics – should the weather be co-operating. Mark Stubbs embraces a dazzling range of culinary styles that might bring on a ceviche of brill alight with lime, ginger and chilli, with crab and pickled kohlrabi salad and pink grapefruit granita, just to get started. Among principal dishes, the halibut in mulligatawny with saffron aïoli mash stands out, while a lobster version of lasagne incorporates chanterelles and stem broccoli. The lightest option for finishing could be a passionfruit and orange crumble soufflé with white chocolate ice cream. Unlicensed – but nip into the ‘Offy’ opposite for a bottle of wine.
Whatever the weather, Nikki Billington’s seafront restaurant has a sunny disposition that is matched by the cooking. The bare wooden tables and floor, and light, bright dining room set the tone for fuss-free tapas that are Mediterranean in style but anchored by impeccably sourced ingredients including the freshest fish and seasonal herbs and vegetables, occasionally own-grown. Kicking off with a vegetarian or charcuterie-based sharing platter is a must for most visitors, and mutton and feta koftas and deep-fried calamari – the best in the area – are menu mainstays. There’s plenty of chargrilling, mackerel fillet (with a side salad and seasonal dip) or bavette steak (with sweet potato and horseradish and mustard crème fraîche), but expect to see imaginative tapas getting their moment of glory on the specials board. Do reserve a table (online bookings are taken up to 31 days in advance). The sea and sunset make for a pretty irresistible vista from the dining room or little terrace.
Join The Good Food Guide Club
As a customer of Panzer’s, you can join The Good Food Guide Club for a special price of £29.99 for one year saving £20 (normally £49.99/year) during the whole month of September. Use promo code GFGPZR when signing up to the Club via this link.
DELIVERY ZONE INFORMATION
Local London Delivery
Due to the nature of our range, some items can only be delivered within the London area. If your order containers any flowers or fresh fruit then you will need to live locally to be able to have it delivered. Sushi is delivered within a 3 mile radius of our store.
Nationwide Delivery
All other goods can be delivered nationwide (excluding Highlands and Islands) via our partner couriers. There is a slightly larger delivery cost for this service outside of London.
Collection In Store
Everything on the store can be ordered for collection from our store. Orders must be picked up on your chosen collection date, and can be picked up from the store between the hours of 9am – 6pm, seven days a week. If your order was placed online, please bring your order confirmation when collecting.
Certain goods can be sent overseas, please call for more information.
