The apples are ready, the pickers have arrived and fruit picking is underway for the year! First up is Bramley, which is a very delicate apple to pick and so takes alot of care and attention. The traditional British variety is the only Cooking Apple we grow at Adrian Scripps Ltd and we believe nothing competes. British Bramley will be available in all good supermarkets immediately and if your looking for ideas why not check out the BRAMLEY APPLES website for inspiration.
This is the definitive English cooking apple which is green with a white flesh and which cooks down to a tart puree. It is great for pies and toppings as well as baked apple. It is available all the year round.
The most popular apple in the UK. A super dessert apple which not only looks good but is very tasty and available from October to April in all multiples and green grocers.
This is a superb looking bright red apple which is both sweet and juicy and stores well.
A great bi-coloured variety that combines sweetness and acidity giving a very rich tangy taste. A family favourite.
A Gala – Braeburn cross which has an extremely attractive bright pink blush. It is slightly acidic but with great sugar balance. Find out more here
This is by far the most widely cultivated pear in North west Europe due to its good flavour characteristics due to its higher sugars and its excellent storage properties. It can be eaten at any stage of ripening from crisp to very ripe depending upon ones taste.
Here at Adrian Scripps Ltd we have been growing blackcurrants continuously for the high vitamin C Ribena drink since the 1960’s.
We grow a succession of varieties on 80 ha on four of our farms to enable a timely harvest, so ensuring the best quality berries are used for making the juice.
We grow Ben Gairn, Avon, Dorain, Hope and Tirran.
In addition to the fruit crops, we also grow approx. 300ha of arable crops in the Medway valley and East Kent.
Crops grown include winter wheat, spring beans and oil seed rape in rotation. All crops are grown to the Assured Produce protocol. All crops in west Kent are stored in our grainstore facilities.
In addition, we are members of the Entry Level Scheme with wild bird mixes, pollen and nectar areas, buffer strips, low input grasslands and over wintered stubbles.
We also manage over 25 ha of woodland.
We believe it is important to promote the healthy natural alternative to sweets that Apples can provide and this starts with education at a young age. That is why we support the Tesco Eat Happy Project by offering school visits or talks. If your school is interested in visiting why not click on the ‘Tesco Eat Happy Logo’ to learn more
It’s not just about the great benefits of apples either. We are championing the great potential for a career in the fruit industry. That’s why we were delighted to be recognised with the Work Experience: Outstanding Employer Contribution award by EBP Kent. If you are interested in work experience why not Contact Us for more information
Alternatively everyone is invited to come and see what we do at Open Farm Sunday. Held annually in June, we, like 1000s of other farmers across the country open our gates to the public. Keep checking the website for details of the next event
We are also proud to sponsor Capel Cricket Club
Harvesting at the right time and only picking the best quality is key to maintain the freshness, flavour and eating quality of our fruit.
This is backed up by the use the latest computerised storage technology. Adrian Scripps Ltd. has one of the largest and most modern controlled atmosphere storage complexes in the UK. We operate a total of 77 chambers capable of holding 15,000 tonnes (45,000 bins) of fruit in Ultra Low Oxygen conditions. The stores are designed to cool the fruit and establish U.L.O. conditions post harvest in the shortest possible time.
Within each individual chamber Ethylene removal as well as controlled atmosphere technology is used to balance the natural gases of respiration. This means the fruit can be maintained in excellent condition until the desired marketing period.
The latest computerised equipment continually monitors the storage conditions. With regular sampling of the fruit by our technical team we are able to ensure it is in its optimum condition when supplied to our customers.
Adrian Scripps Ltd has just invested in brand new state of the art MAF- Roda pre-grader, utilising the most modern technology and recent advances in computerised colour, size and blemish sorting. Adrian Scripps Ltd have also invested in new packing lines and are able to grade and pack several varieties and product lines daily. Typically 15 tonnes of fruit an hour can be graded and packed into a range customer packs and standards.Pre-packing facilities allow the packing of poly bags, over-wrap packs and flo-wraps to match our customers’ individual requirements.
An experienced and motivated team ensures that all packed product meets customer standards and reaches the consumer in perfect condition. Through our traceability system the origin of fruit can be traced from the supermarket shelf back to the orchard where it was grown.