IT WAS enough to give my poor little sapling the pip and could easily have been too much to bear.

The diminutive tree, bought only in March from Deacon's at Godshill, produced just three apples, but they bent it nearly double.

The reason? These were Howgate Wonders, an example of which, until recent years, held the world record — tipping the scales at a hefty 3lb 11oz.

I shouldn't really have allowed it to fruit at all in its first year in my little orchard, but I was greedy and wanted to see my own Wonders.

The Blenheim Orange-Newton Wonder cross bears the Howgate name of its Bembridge birthplace and is a great cooker — especially for sauce, because it breaks up when cooked and is less acidic than the Bramley Seedling.

This is a bumper year for apples and they are big contributors to the estimated £13 billion annual cost of food waste.

Another startling statistic is that we only consume ten per cent of the apples we grow in our gardens while, paradoxically, the UK imports mountains of the fruit.

The obvious reason for this is there is only so much room in the freezer, and apple storage is still not the flavour of the month for most.

With Community Crush in a fallow year at Ryde's Rosemary Vineyard, there isn't even a local juicing scheme — so one solution is, sadly, the compost heap.

I was asked recently if apples contribute to good compost — and they do.

Chuck them on the heap, cover with leaves, sawdust or soil to prevent them becoming a wasp magnet, and they will quickly break down with the added bonus of that sweet aroma of fermentation.

Take a look at gardenappleid.co.uk for Island apple news and info.