By Terry Durack

There is nothing like the crisp crunch of a freshly picked, never-seen-a-coldstore, new season's English apple. I've just bitten into a Rubens apple, the first new variety of apple to be grown in Britain since 2000, and I have to tell you, it's so LOUD. How nice to be able to talk about a crunch, without getting depressed.

It also tastes amazingly tart, fresh and juicy; as good as my favourite Cox's Orange Pippin from Britain and the Braeburn from New Zealand. The 100,000 Rubens apple trees are grown on seven Kentish farms in the heart of "the garden of England" to the UK's highest standards, following sustainable environmental practices such as natural pest control, with minimal usage of pesticides. The apples will be available in Tesco, Somerfeld, Co-op and Booths supermarkets from the end of the October. I said, from the end of Oct – oh, never mind.