Despite the start of the year remaining cold and wet, our trees in the Orchard are starting to come alive again. The nut trees are starting to produce catkins. If you are passing the Orchard. pop in to see the nut trees. A good reminder that Spring is on it’s way.
Our last workday was very productive. All the branches produced by the pruning were put to good use in the dead hedge created by the drop off area. Dead hedges are easy to make and put all the wood produced by the maintenance of the trees and fruit bushes to good use. They make an ideal habitat for the smaller wild life inhabiting the orchard along with fungi. It all helps to create a diverse environment.
After the frost and snow, the Orchard is now struggling with all the rain! The drop off space is very wet and a pair of good boots or wellies is needed if you’re paying a visit to the Orchard.
George and Chris from the Communities in Focus Project joined us for our Wassailing event. The project aims to record people, places and moments in our local communities.
George and Chris have created a wonderful record of Wassailing in the orchard and shared some of their photos with us. If you’d like to see all of the photos and find out more about the project, you can visit the Communities in Focus website here.
Every year we hold our Wassailing event, this is a tradition that’s held around the country at this time of year. In the past people saw it as a way of thanking the trees for the fruit, wake up the trees ready for Spring and bring luck for a good crop of fruit.
This year we had another bright sunny, snowy day for our Wassailing. We were led round the orchard by our Green Man, and musicians leading us in traditional songs and dances. Our trees were woken up with loud noises and fed cider and bread to encourage another bumper crop of apples. Many thanks to our musicians and dancers and our Green Man. Hopefully we will see the results in September!
It’s been a cold and snowy start to the new year in the orchard. The trees are firmly asleep but the cold weather is good news because apple trees need 50 days of the temperature to be 5 degrees Celsius each winter to be productive. The snowy sunny weather has also created a winter wonderland in the orchard.
Hanging up bunches of Mistletoe is a long held tradition. Orchard members braved the rain today to cut bunches of mistletoe to be sold in our village greengrocers. Despite the rain we were able to deliver 15 bunches of mistletoe all ready for Christmas!
Although nearly all of the apples have been picked, and the fruit trees and bushes are settling down for the Winter, the Orchard is still active. If you take a walk around the paths you will be able to find many different fungi. Fungi play an important part of the Orchard’s eco system. Don’t forget to look only though, non of the fungi are edible!
The Orchard is now showing off its Autumn colours. It’s well worth a visit while our fruit trees still have their leaves. The nut walk is particularly colourful as is our Walnut tree.
This year’s wonderful summer has produced a great crop of apples in the orchard. On a bright Sunday morning, orchard members enjoyed the sun, wandering round the orchard picked apples. Our younger members had good fun choosing their own apples and tasting them. Everybody pitched in to help with the apple juicing, and we all went away with bottles of fresh, organic apple juice.
Lanchester Community Orchard 