The most crisp Jonagold apples

Just outside Brussels is Torenhof fruit farm, where we meet manager and fruit grower, Ann De Ryck. “We harvest around 400 tonnes a year. Our orchard spans ten hectares. It is relatively small, but this allows us to give our trees the proper care and attention they need.” Part of a fruit growing family, Ann knew from a young age that she too would make her way into the profession. Torenhof grows pears, but mainly  focuses on cultivating apples. “We offer a wide range of flavours in a range of varieties, but specialise in the juicy Jonagold apple in particular. We believe this is one of the tastiest apples there is, if grown and stored properly.”

What does an average year look like? Ann explains: “Our year starts in winter with pruning. That’s one of the best jobs there is, because it allows you to work on your tree for the long term. Later, in springtime, we check if it is getting the right nutrition and care, so it makes it through the flowering period well. The natural molting period follows in June. If the tree produces too much fruit at this stage, we manually remove excess apples so that the tree does not become overloaded. If we didn’t do this, the apples would turn out smaller and less tasty, and the tree would become unbalanced the following year. Finally, comes the picking season. This is the most enjoyable and busiest time of the year, because this is when you have a lot of people on your farm. It’s when you can clearly see what you’ve been working on for a whole year.”