Ashmead's Kernel Ashmead's Kernel Ashmead's Kernel is a triploid cultivar of apple. Traditionally Ashmead's Kernel was thought to be diploid but a poor pollinator. Ashmead's Kernel is often reported as having been raised by Dr Ashmead in Gloucester, England in the 18th century. However Christine Leighton of the Gloucestershire Orchard Group suggests that the originator may have been William Ashmead, a lawyer who died in 1782. This dessert apple is of medium size, on average 83mm in diameter on vigorous rootstock and has a flat round shape. The base colour of the apple is greenish yellow, yet has a dull russet colour
Irish traditional music is becoming a somewhat more common instrument amongst Irish traditional musicians. Fiddle tunes are readily accessible to the mandolin player because of the equivalent range of the two instruments and the practically identical (allowing for the lack of frets on the fiddle) left hand fingerings. Although almost any variety of acoustic mandolin might be adequate for Irish traditional music, virtually all Irish players prefer flat-backed instruments with oval sound holes to the Italian-style bowl-back mandolins or the carved-top mandolins with f-holes favoured by bluegrass mandolinists. The former are often too soft-toned to hold their own in a session (as well