The Orchard Project

❄️ The Orchard Project's staff team is taking a well-earned break from 25 December until 2 January (or 3 January for our Scottish contingent, as they are blessed with an extra Bank Holiday) ❄️ We wish you all a peaceful holiday season and look forward to helping even more communities to plant, restore and celebrate orchards in 2025! And as we bid farewell to 2024, here’s a final apple fact from us to see out the year... ‘Apple gifting’ was a tradition of taking decorated apples from house to house as a sign of friendship and good health. The apple was smeared with flour and covered in oats, wheat, raisins or corn. A skewer was pushed in to the side to hold it by and three sticks were added to act as a tripod for the apple to stand upon. The top was adorned with sweet-smelling evergreen like thyme, and hung with nuts, particuarly hazel. For extra decadence, some apples were also sprinkled with gold leaf. It’s hard to imagine this not ending up as a sticky mess, but hopefully it was a lot more appealing than the description suggests...

Tomorrow is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Did you know that solstice comes from the Latin 'solstitium', bringing together the words sol (sun) and sistere (to standstill)? So let's savour a moment of stillness today and enjoy this beautiful seasonal poem... ❄️Winter Solstice❄️ Come once more, when all the rest have gone, When blossom, leaf and fruit are packed away. Come when slanted winter light holds sway. Come amid bright silence. Come alone. Come as you are, steeled against the cold. Tread soft and slow among the naked trees. Breathe the sparkling air with sabbath ease. Come let this sparing time ingrain the soul. Come the day the setting sun hangs fire, Before its quiet climb that turns the world, While the coiled spring is tightly furled. Come, keep watch and catch this wild desire. Come, and bring a new-made apple tree, A callow stem with ancient root in union. Dig deep, heel in, and there make your communion. Come back, and sing the song in every season. - illustration and text kindly reproduced with permission from Wassail, a poem cycle in celebration of orchards, by Debbie Whitton Spriggs. Find out more at: https://lght.ly/984n1e6 (50% of the cover price goes towards the #SaveCotonOrchard campaign) #CommunityOrchards #WinterSolstice

We're thrilled to be working on this Tiny Orchard project in Hendon with Earthwatch Europe, designed to create even more pockets of green space in our capital! https://lnkd.in/eSGmWjxb

It was wonderful to be able to mark three successful years of running our CICO (Certificate in Community Orcharding) course in North Lanarkshire with a celebratory meal of home cooked delights 🥧 The event, which took place last weekend at Hope Church in Coatbridge, near Glasgow, was organised by our Scottish project managers, Chris and Fergus. It brought together many of the graduates and orchard mentors who have been such a big part of this project. (We'd like to state for the record that despite the rather jaunty angle Chris took this photo at, apparently it was just tea or coffee in those cups!) Among the achievements marked were 45 students engaging with the course, 200 volunteers trained in orcharding skills, and 10 orchards sites improved. We'd like to extend a big thank you to all the people, partnerships and organisations that helped make this possible, including The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Coatbridge Community Orchard, Clydesdale Community Initiatives, Bothwell Community Garden, Pollok Walled Garden, Palacerigg Community Trust, Baron's Haugh RSPB Reserve, Calderbank Community Centre, and Newmains Community & Conference Centre.

Mike Kane, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, recently met our Manchester project manager Joe and Friends of Moor Nook Park Orchard to find out more about this amazing community space. Three years ago we helped some local mums turn a once neglected corner of a park into a thriving orchard in South Manchester that the whole community can enjoy. If you'd like to know more, check out this short video about the orchard, made by one of our former staff members a few years ago: https://lght.ly/1g0delb

Have you spotted any apples still on a tree near you? They're few and far between now, but a modern day Johnny Appleseed is on a mission to have us all eating many more long keeping apples in the future. Long keeping apples are those that remain on the tree through the winter months, or which store well into spring under cool, but non-refrigerated conditions. Most supermarket apples bought today tend to be chosen for their ability to travel well and still look good, often at the expense of taste and diversity. But what if you could grow your own apples that lasted ages and still tasted amazing?! Find out more on our latest blog: https://lght.ly/1d0fdjb #CommunityOrchards #LongKeepingApples

We're pleased to let you know that our corporate partner, Daylesford Organic, is kindly donating a percentage of the profits from their Christmas hampers towards our work. Good reason enough to take a look at the treats they have on offer 🍏! Daylesford Organic recognise the importance of UK orchards, particularly in organic food production. Their own market garden and agroforestry area produce much of the orchard fruit served in their cafés and sold in the farm shops and hampers. https://lght.ly/42ai7oa

This #GivingTuesday, we’re not asking for money, but instead taking the opportunity to share a few different ways you can support us for free. 🌳 If you’ve been on one of our accredited community orcharding courses, recommend it to a friend who loves orchards - https://lght.ly/m17id5m ⛏️Follow us on Eventbrite and volunteer your time at one of our community events - we have an orchard blitz in London and a tree planting coming up in Manchester this week - https://lght.ly/92207fe 🌍 Visit a community orchard near you to see if they need extra help - check out our map - https://lght.ly/18nflf 💬 Engage with our content on socials ✏️ Sign up to our mailing list - https://lght.ly/co3akm9 Giving Tuesday UK is a day when people and organisations from all over the world come together to celebrate generosity and show support for the causes and communities close to their hearts. Since 2009 we’ve created and restored over 640 orchards and there’s still plenty more work to be done: let’s continue to grow our amazing orcharding community into 2025! GivingTuesday

Our Swansea project manager Witchhazel recently worked with students at Gower College Swansea to create this dead hedge in their grounds. Although a dead hedge is so-called because it’s made from cut wood and brash, this is a bit of a misnomer as it’s actually usually teeming with life! It’s a perfect hideaway for birds, small mammals and insects, who love all the crevices and slowly rotting wood 🐞 Creating a dead hedge is pretty simple: use straight(ish) lengths of branch for the uprights to create two rows opposite each other, about 60cm apart, and space each of the uprights along the rows with about a metre between them. You then push your woody cuttings down the middle, inbetween the two rows. If it looks a little ‘untidy’ then you’ve done it right - twigs and bits sticking out make great perches for birds. After it’s set up, you can add to it gradually, as and when you have woody material to hand.

Earlier this year we gave expert advice to the UK Faculty of Public Health to help create a new resource for health professionals about food-producing trees and hedges. A food system which allows everyone to have access to nutritious food, while also protecting our natural environment, is key for public health. However, using food growing spaces (such as community orchards) as a way to improve dietary behaviour and inequality is not often mentioned in government policies and plans. Well worth a read for anyone interested in better connecting community food growing projects with public health: https://lnkd.in/exChHPPr Amanda Donnelly Jane Beenstock