Why didn't anyone warn me that cider has more calories even than Guinness? Yet despite years of involuntary twitching whenever I saw a pint of the stuff, I now find myself unable to resist ordering half a cider whenever I am standing at a bar.

I blame this potential weight-gain nightmare on the fact that I've been seduced by reading about historic apple varieties and inspiring community orchard projects. October has been deemed Cider and Perry Month, Apple Day is on October 21, and there are apple-related events going on all month long.

I've spent the summer studying apple varieties to plant in the garden, finally settling on Lady Sudeley ("sweet and juicy") and Sunset ("spectacular in blossom"), sourced from Butterworth's Organic Nursery in Ayrshire. This research has been far more fun than the treacherous surveying of the average apple's eco-credentials.

According to the Institute of Food Research, the UK apple market is now worth more than £320m, but only a third of the eating apples sold in the UK are home-grown. How appalling, you might think. But even if there were enough commercial orchards, would it really be better to eat British all year round?

"I'd never buy apples from New Zealand," trills the evangelistic shopper. "They simply have to be locally grown." This is an excellent sentiment during the British apple season (July to October), but outwith this timeframe things get a little trickier. One study compared the carbon footprints of British apples that had been stored for several months in energy-guzzling industrial fridges before being sold, with fresh New Zealand apples that had been transported to the UK by sea. The apples from Down Under had the lower carbon footprint.

Hence my urge to plant my own trees. I'll need more than two to provide an apple a day, but it's a start. And I can store the fruits of my labours 'traditionally', in my cold, dark, draughty attic.

No space to plant trees? You could seek out a community orchard – have a look at www.commonground.org.uk for details, as well as listings for Apple Day events.

But back to the facts and figures. Did you know that apple pips contain cyanide? So it's probably better to plant them than eat them. A staggering 4.4 million apples are thrown into household bins each year. Then there's the survey that showed 60% of us wrongly think the Granny Smith is British.

My favourite fact about apples, though, is that to conform to EC grading criteria, apple-growers have to produce fruit matching required standards of colour, shape, size and 'freedom from skin blemishes'. Tragically, there is no criteria for flavour.

We can't look at food in this column without considering organic growing, and seeing as apples are one of the most heavily sprayed food crops (up to 18 dousings a year with insecticides, fungicides and so on), it seems to be an option worth considering. With organic yields typically 25% lower than conventionally farmed ones, organic apples might be hard to find, but eating them means you are less likely to lie awake at night worrying about being poisoned.

Luckily for me, there are several producers, such as Dunkerton's, Weston's and Sheppy's, who make organic cider. Hopefully the forthcoming tree-planting will help burn off some of the calories.