THE harvest has begun at the largest commercial apple orchard in the north of England.

The orchard at Ampleforth Abbey, near Helmsley, has some 2,000 trees comprising more than 40 different varieties of apple.

Harvest begins with the early ripening varieties Beauty of Bath and Discovery and will end in December with Belle de Boskoop.

The apples are used to produce the multi award-winning Ampleforth Abbey Cider which is pressed, fermented and bottled in the on-site cider mill.

The apples are also used to produce Ampleforth Apple Liqueur and a pressed apple juice.

Orchard manager Tim Saxby said: “We started picking on Monday and we have already pressed some of the apples for juice. We will be bottling later this the week, then the juice will be available for sale in the Abbey shop.

“You can’t get much fresher or more locally sourced – for us it’s a case of ‘food metres’ rather than food miles.”