Celebrating the wide choice from the English orchard

British apple growers are hoping that a number of events this week aimed at promoting the country's apples will encourage more people to buy local.

West Winds Yorkshire Tearooms in Buckden, Upper Wharfedale, is holding the West Winds Apple Festival until Sunday.

As well as offering the chance to try more than 20 dessert varieties, the tearooms will be tempting customers with a range of tasty main course savoury dishes, puddings and cakes, all made with a not-so-secret ingredient – apples.

West Winds Yorkshire Tearooms are run by Lynn Thornborrow and Stephen Hounsham. Stephen said: "There are well over 2,000 different varieties of apple that can be grown in England but all too often the choice we're offered in the shops is miserable.

"Many, many varieties of apple – both ancient and modern – have fabulous tastes and textures but we hardly ever get the chance to try them. Apple-tastings are an opportunity to see just how exciting apples can be."

The apple festival will feature two varieties of apple grown in the West Winds tea garden itself. The rest of the apples are coming from Yorkshire Orchards, a small, family-run orchard containing well over 100 varieties. It was established in 2002 close to Wilberfoss, near York, and continues to expand, incorporating varieties that originated in many different countries.

Many of the apples grown by Alec and Angela Allison at Wilberfoss have evocative and historical names that reflect the magic and depth of the world of apples away from the shelves of the supermarkets. Adam's Pearmain, Ashmead's Kernel, Karmijin de Sonnaville, Lord Lambourne and Ribston Pippin are names that come from a world where quality comes before quantity and convenience of production and storage, and they will all be appearing at West Winds Apple Festival.

Like many of the apples grown at Yorkshire Orchards, they have flavours, textures and colours that outclass the modern "factory" varieties such as Golden Delicious and Granny Smith.

Adam's Pearmain is an old English apple developed in either Herefordshire or Norfolk in 1826 by a Mr Adams. Ashmead's Kernel dates back even further – to around 1700 – when it was developed in Gloucester by a Dr Ashmead.

Karmijin de Sonnaville arose in the Netherlands in 1949, first grown by Piet de Sonnaville. Lord Lambourne originated in 1907, when it was raised by the Laxton Brothers of Bedford, well known names in the world of apples.

Finally, the Ribston Pippin is a true old Yorkshire apple. It comes from Ribston Hall, near Knaresborough, where it is alleged to have been raised by Sir Henry Goodricke from a pip brought back from his travels to Rouen in France around 1688.

Apples originated in the Middle East more than 4,000 years ago and have probably been grown in the UK since Roman times. Specially cultivated apple varieties arrived in England via France at around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The Normans had a strong tradition of apple growing and introduced many apple varieties including Pearmain and Costard.

There was a decline in apple growing in the 13th century as a result of the Black Death as well as repeated droughts. This was reversed by Henry VIII who instructed his fruiterer, Richard Harris, to establish the first large scale orchard at Teynham in Kent. Harris began to import apple trees from France and planted a model orchard which was used to distribute trees to other growers.

The Victorian explorers found new varieties of apple all over the world and bought them back to plant at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent, establishing a world famous orchard.

Today Brogdale is home to the National Fruit Collection, the largest collection of fruit trees in the world with over 2,300 different types of apple. It forms a safe repository of varieties and is supported by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.