|
Orchards Live - saving orchards in North Devon |
|
News and Views Summer 2008 Editorial : Committee Reports : Appeal for Volunteers Exmoor and West Somerset NEWS SNIPPETS : A LITTLE AND OFTEN : MORE COMMUNITY ORCHARDS COURSES : ANNUAL GATHERING : Dr Barrie Junipers Talks at Rosemoor EDITORIAL: Letter from Chairman Like scholars, Orchards Live has a year which starts in September. That is when we announce our Autumn programme, and then in January we start our Spring one which climaxes with our Annual Gathering, (except that this year we followed the Gathering with two events which were certainly not anti-climaxes). Traditionally, Summer has been something of a light-hearted season with BBQs, cream teas, walks, visits to cider-makers etc, although also useful because a lot of information has been exchanged. But this Summer I hope we can be serious for a few minutes and ask the question ‘Is Orchards Live still a campaigning organisation?’ We started life with a slogan as our name: ‘Save our Orchards’, -and ‘saving North Devon’s orchards’ remains our strap line. We are proud that a lot of things have been saved. For example: more than one Devon nursery sells rare local apple trees which were not available when we started; there is a Millennium Green with almost lost mazzard trees at Landkey; wassails and other orchard celebrations have not disappeared; unexpectedly valuable wildlife like the noble chafer is being found in old standard orchards... Above all, hundreds of people have devoted themselves to acquiring, restoring, maintaining or planting traditional orchards, so that a traditional element of the Devon landscape is sustained for future generations, -and with it traditional products of fruit, cider etc, (saving food miles too, -what could be more modern as well as traditional?) Could our success as an organisation is making us complacent? Perhaps we are not doing as much as ‘campaigning’ as we should? Later stories in this newsletter give two examples: Tony Dion has been disappointed to the response of Orchard Live members to the Traditional Orchard Survey being conducted by PTES for English Nature; the review of Common Ground’s Community Orchard Handbook makes us aware of how little we have done to promote community orchards in recent years. I made remarks on these lines at our Annual Gathering, explaining that we should like to do more, but our Committee is stretched. Immediately a number of people volunteered to help us; wonderful, I shall be contacting them. If you feel that you can help in any way please get in touch. Particularly note our Advert for Volunteers, and after a relaxing Summer be ready for an exciting Autumn and Winter saving the orchards of North Devon and Exmoor. Michael Gee, 01271-374180 New members are always welcome at our Committee meetings which are held at the Old Coaching Inn, South Molton,at 7.30pm on the first Thursday of January (except New Year’s Day), March. May, July, September and November. Tony Dion from Okehampton has joined the Committee. In March we had an encouraging report from our Treasurer. Having taken account of all commitments we have a surplus of funds; we have decided to renew our equipment (used on courses) and to have an ongoing fund for this. We also reviewed the courses run since the start of the year, (-see Events Review later in this Newsletter). 76 people had participated. We plan to establish a number of tree guards of different designs in the Demonstration Orchard. Any member who is proud of their own effective guards should contact Chris Niesigh (01271-883195) with information. Our May meeting was mostly concerned with ‘Strategic Issues’. Now that many courses were run by our own (Committee) members, (rather than ‘bought in’ contributors), we needed extra help/helpers in supporting them at the events. An Events Co-ordinator was a priority. If the Committee was freed from day-to-day course management issues it could have more time to address matters like orchard conservation. We discussed the need for stocking more literature and better course hand-outs, -again a question of finding more voluntary help. MHG We could advance the cause of orchard conservation in North Devon if more members volunteered for a few hours or rather longer each year. Please phone the Chairman, Michael Gee, (01271-374180). Specifically we are looking for a Volunteer Events Co-ordinator. This would be the biggest contribution! We are looking for an organised person (with phone and e-mail) who can work with a few hours per month on an irregular basis, (mostly in the winter). The person will work with the Chairman and Secretary on developing new events, and sorting out the nuts and bolts of our training courses. The Chairman can talk through the needs and your contribution. All the expenses will be covered and the volunteer will be unbelievably popular with the Committee! ORCHARDS LIVE...ON EXMOOR and in WEST SOMERSET Exmoor National Park has historically been the most ‘orcharded’ of any British National Park, and particularly in the Vale of Porlock standard orchards have been a very significant element in the landscape. But as in most parts of the country there was a decline throughout the 20th Century. For some time Exmoor National Park has recognised the importance of orchards in its plans, -ahead of the recent inclusion of standard orchards in the National Biodiversity Action Plan. But something more is needed to stimulate interest and action. Orchards Live offered to run a course on ‘Restorative Pruning’ to test interest, and the National Trust kindly offered Piles Mill near Porlock as the venue. The event, run by Orchard Live’s Chris Patt last December, was substantially overbooked, and the response of those attending was ‘more events, please’. Following a successful application to the Exmoor Sustainable Development Fund Orchards Live is now working to extend its activities on Exmoor and in nearby West Somerset. An embryonic committee has been established and it has made suggestions for a programme of events to start in Autumn 2008. These include courses on Planning an Orchard, Somerset Apples, Grafting, Harvesting and Products as well as another on Restorative Pruning. There will be a visit to Old Cleeve Community Orchard and co-operation with existing events such as the Carhampton Community Orchard Apple Day. A trip to Herefordshire and Worcestershire is planned for 2009. The Committee also intends to acquire an Apple Mill and other equipment, based on the success of such acquisitions for North Devon use. It is intended that the Exmoor and West Somerset Group will complement rather than duplicate existing Orchards Live work in North Devon, making the most efficient use of resources. The Autumn and Winter programme will be finalised at a meeting at Carhampton Village Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday, 28 August and new faces are very welcome. Michael Gee SAVE OUR BEES The British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) has appealed to the government to invest £8m over five years in a research programme to investigate viruses which have contributed to a dramatic fall in the UK bee population over the winter. DEFRA claims to have given higher priority to the National Bee Unit which is looking at colony losses, but at present the government has put forward only £200,000 for bee research. Lord Rooker told the House of Lords earlier this year, ‘If nothing is done about it, the honeybee population could be wiped out in ten years.’ Enterprising beekeepers in Derbyshire have launched their own petition. www.bbka.org.uk MOTHER ORCHARD PROJECT The National Trust has planted around 300 apple trees at Cotehele in Cornwall on an eight acre site known as the Mother Orchard. This project’s aim is to preserve and protect 120 varieties native to the Tamar Valley. Propagation material was donated by Mary Martin and James Evans who have devoted themselves over the last thirty years to preserving the local gene pool. (Many members will recall our visit to Mary and James’s orchard and to Cotehele to see the cherries during a heat wave in July 2005.) DORMICE People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is offering £1,000 award for landowners who can help ‘to reconnect the countryside for the dormouse’. They have spent the last 15 years releasing captive-bred populations back into their native habitats. So if your land contains hedgerows and/or deciduous woodland, and if you are planting new hedgerows, filling in gaps, hedge laying and coppicing, then you may qualify for this award which also carries second and third prizes. Email nida@ptes.org or call 020 7498 4533 for entry forms CHERRY AID We now import ninety five percent of all the cherries we eat. Let’s face it, British cherries are in a jam. The Cherry Aid campaign is an appeal to all Brits to stand by their native crop. On Saturday 19th July, British Cherry Day, we are exhorted to buy fresh cherries, pick our own, eat and drink cherry-based products or even plant a cherry tree. Remember that cherries contain vitamins E and C, and even act as pain killers (twenty cherries function as well as a dose of aspirin). So let’s get cherry picking. TRADITIONAL ORCHARD SURVEY Tony Dion reported at our Annual Gathering on the Devon successes of the PTES Survey on behalf of English Nature, (-see OL Newsletter 40 under News Snippets). He had been disappointed with responses from OL members, -perhaps we are ‘surveyed out’. Anyway, many people at the Gathering took forms. If you still have to return your form, or would like to take part in the valuable survey, please contact Tony at 75 Fern Close, Okehampton, EX20 1PD. E-mail ctdion1@btinternet.com By George Travis George, a member of our Committee, encourages you to try making best quality juice, even though you might be reducing his West Lake sales! Enjoying two young people plus the help of WWOOFERS enabled us to keep ahead of the apple crop last season. We managed to press fruit within a couple of days of them being picked, often picking in the morning, pressing in the afternoon, and bottling next morning. Early season fruit presents only a narrow window of pressing opportunity with varieties such as Beauty of Bath being ripe one day and unusable the next. Mid-season varieties last longer, and late season fruit keeps even longer. If pressed too early starches will not have converted to sugars and full flavour will not have developed. When fruit is over ripe and soft, pressing cloths can become messy. Floury fruit (e.g. over ripe Egremont Russet) may block mills and resulting juices will not be of best quality. Both problems slow down processing. Don’t look on juicing as a last resort when all other options (eating, cooking, baking, jam and chutney making) have run out and lump left over apples together in one weekend session – even deciding which weekend is difficult to plan in this era of unpredictable season and cropping dates. The advice is to PRESS VARIETIES SEPARATELY WHEN THEY ARE IN PERFECT CONDITION. This will mean pressing smaller amounts and pressing more frequently. Press throughout the season, press each variety separately and appreciate the range of tastes. If hiring equipment, why not share costs with others in the locality and do community pressing? Over the last couple of years the following varieties with SW connections have produced saleable juices for us: Ponsford, Mother, Tom Putt, Devonshire Quarrenden, Cornish Gilliflower, Pear Apple, Lucombe’s Pine, Brown’s, Tommy Knight, Crimson Queen, Johnny Voun. Vive la difference!!! The production of a Community Orchards Handbook, reviewed by Jo Homan, is a challenge to Orchards Live. When we started the ‘Save our Orchards’ Campaign we floated the idea that every community should have its orchard. Since then we have been involved with a most successful community orchard, the Landkey Millennium Green, but otherwise not much. Our Autumn programme in West Somerset is likely to take us to the fine community orchard at Old Cleeve, and nearby is another at Carhampton, so why can’t there be more in North Devon? The main reason is that community orchards require expertise and time; (they do not always require big money). If more people with expertise, and particularly time, could identify themselves then there could be more community orchards in North Devon. MHG BOOK REVIEW PROTECTING OUR ORCHARD HERITAGE Sustain Publication 2008, 122pp, Unpriced ISBN:978-1-903060-46-9 Hardly a day goes by without the Western Morning News bemoaning the disastrous effects of EU policies on the South West’s agriculture and fisheries (quite right!): grants encourage the grubbing up of orchards, regulations restrict grazing in orchards etc etc. The EU is seen as centralised, remote and inflexible (not cuddly, local and democratic!). So it is good to read about a European Union initiative, Leader+, which has been encouraging conservation of traditional orchards as part of the local landscape and economy. The work of Leader+ , described here by Sustain, is local, well grounded and very varied. Ida Fabrizio’s book is described as a good practice guide, but it is not prescriptive. It draws on the many projects supported by Leader+, from the Cumbria Fells and Dales Damson Development Scheme to our own Orchard Grants Scheme, to show how orchards can be researched, evaluated and their many benefits exploited. The reasons for the conservation of traditional orchards are shown to be many; the means of conservation are even more. The book may have limited appeal to individual orchard owners, but it will be most useful for the OL Committee. A photo of Eggesford Apple Day shows our Secretary (bless!) hard at work, -the Chairman (as usual) is just visible in the far distance. The next time we visit Eggesford our presence will be graced by decorative and informative banners provided through Leader+. MHG BOOK REVIEW COMMUNITY ORCHARDS HANDBOOK Written by Angela King and Sue Clifford for Common Ground (the organisation which initiated the idea of Community Orchards in 1992), this spiral-bound handbook offers philosophy, practical advice and guide lines to aspiring community orchardists. Many success stories are demonstrated and vibrantly illustrated, but pitfalls are not glossed over. Information ranges through the practicalities of ‘how to begin’, choosing fruit varieties, organising working parties, managing for wild life through to how to make use of the produce and safe guard orchards in perpetuity. Lists of relevant groups, support organisations and national contacts are given in an appendix. A satisfying, workman-like publication. A5 spiral bound. 90 colour photos. 226 pages. £10 + £3 p&p. JH There have been five courses since the last issue of this Newsletter, and space does not allow a full account of each one. Michael Gee’s course on Planning at Weare Giffard attracted a dozen participants who had some very different plans, and there was some very positive feedback. The Planting course with Adam Montague, run at Rusdon Farm in early February, reintroduced a course we had not run since the 1990s with the late George Gilbert. We wanted to help those who were involved with the Orchards Grant Scheme, and there was good attendance. It is a challenge to deal with theory AND practical work in just one day, but participants appreciated the opportunity to practise what they would be doing on their own land shortly afterwards. We will try and incorporate a Planting course on an annual basis from now on. Formative Pruning at Landkey was again well attended and blessed with good weather; the trees there are growing well (we needed ladders for some trees) and the pruning policy of contrasting ‘Centre Leader’ and ‘Goblet’ forms is beginning to show. Our popular Grafting course with Kevin Croucher at Winkleigh went smoothly, despite two last minute hiccups, - Jane Pay who provides graft wood, tape, wax etc was taken ill, and the need to dovetail our course with a funeral reception in the Hall...we were booked first! We were with Kevin again for the final course of our Spring programme, on Top-working. Jane Pay writes ‘On a cold drizzly morning, about 24 of us from OL and RHS Fruit Group met at Thornhayes Nursery for some instruction on top working fruit trees with Kevin Croucher. Because of the inclement weather he could only demonstrate on a young potted tree in the polytunnel. He also showed examples of trees worked in previous years in his orchard. The course was good value as usual from Kevin and the method certainly works. The trees I did in early May have all taken.’ Umberleigh Village Hall was the venue for this years well-attended Gathering and Supper. It was warm and well-appointed, but had a low ceiling which was an acoustical problem for speakers. Jane Schofield’s flowers graced the tables, and Jane Pay’s apple enthusiasm penetrated all items of the original menu and lovely food. West Lake apple juice was available in many varieties. Our guest speaker was James Crowden whose bubbly enthusiasm for cider and orchards was infectious. The Chairman produced an upbeat but challenging review of the year, and also a quiz which landed him in trouble, as usual, with some attending! Dr Barrie Juniper's Talks at Rosemoor In between the April showers the RHS Rosemoor Lecture Room was packed with people wanting to hear about the 'Mysterious Origin of the English Apple'. Dr Juniper is a lively speaker, his enthusiasm for a good mystery carrying people along. If you want to know more you really should have been there, but at least get hold of a copy of his book with the same title. Did you know that there are around 20,000 varieties of apple (compared to 2 of kiwi and 2 of banana) of which some 2,500 come from the UK? And the tastiness of the apple is the key factor in its spread to the West: horses, bears and people love them! In the Tien Shan (mountains in NW China) he has visited the few remaining stands of fruit forests - full of apples, pears, plums and apricots. That really fired my imagination. The afternoon lecture was an exclusive preview of his research into the 'Tradescant Orchard in the Bodleian Library'. These 66 ethereally luminous watercolours of fruit, painted in the early 1600s, are thought to be the first versions of an all colour fruit catalogue that the Tradescant brothers would travel with - to show 'nobel lords and heads of great country houses' and their head gardeners what wonderful fruits they could grow. it was a very enjoyable day out and I recommend his other book to anyone building up a collection of apple and cider books. 'The Compleat Planter & Cyderist, by a Lover of Planting' (ed BE Juniper & SB Juniper). It is a reprinted (and slightly modernised) version of a 1690 edition of which only 12 copies are known to still exist (and three of those in the UK) of the probable several hundred that were printed. And no one has discovered who the 'lover of planting' was!
Copyright © 2008 Dartington North Devon Trust |