Despite the very hot, dry summer our fruit trees have once again produced an abundance of apples.
A good turn out of members meant we were able to chop, shred and juice all of the windfall apples. Freshly pressed apple juice is delicious!
Everyone went home with a box of apples for cooking, eating and preserving.
A good harvest once again, and many thanks to the orchard members who help on work days and to everyone who supports the Orchard activities throughout the year!
We all use string, it’s an everyday object, many shops sell it and it has many uses. On Saturday 26th September a group of Orchard members met to learn how to make string out of natural materials.
Our session was lead by a wonderfully knowledgeable lady called Anna Corbett, who has been making cordage and weaving for many years. Anna is a basket maker who loves making string and who works almost entirely with plants local to where she lives in Northumberland. These may be wild or cultivated, from moors and meadows, woods and gardens. They include leaves and stems, grasses, rushes, roots, moss, straw and bark. See scottishbasketmakers.org
She shared her ideas about the history of cordage and showed us how to make simple twisted string from rushes. Once we’d worked out our left twisting from our right twisting we were all able to make our own.
Cordage can be made out of many natural materials. In the afternoon session one group learnt how to process nettles for cordage material and another group made great lengths of rope out of hay and rushes.
It was such a good day, Anna was a brilliant teacher and we all learnt so much about the ancient craft of cordage making.
This took place on a very warm evening in July! We have been tracking the wild flowers and grasses throughout the Spring and these were added to the final total. There were a similar number of species compared to the 57 species we identified last year. A complete list will be posted when available.
Many thanks to Sonny, Viv, Terry and Eleanor for conduction the survey.
One of the aims of the Orchard is to create a habitat which encourages a diverse wildlife. On Friday evening of 10th July, Terry, a retired environmentalist and life long naturalist set up a moth trap. The following morning we had over 30 adults and children attending the trap opening. It was amazing to see the huge variety of moths caught in the trap. They were carefully removed and placed into specimen pots for everyone to see the vivid colours and markings on the moths’ wings. The moths were then released into the orchard to continue adding to the variety of wildlife who make their homes in the Orchard.
Many thanks to Terry for organising the event and to Noel and Viv who helped him identify the moths. We recorded 31 species of moth.
We ran our first ever spoon carving event on Saturday 4th July. It was a lovely sunny day so we were able to hold this event outside. Seven people attended the event and were shown how to carve a greenwood spoon using hand held woodworking tools. Many thanks to Chris and Simon for organising and leading the event. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, learnt some traditional skills and had their own unique spoon to take home!
Orchard members have been tidying the Forest Garden so that we can plant more herbs for ground cover and hopefully discourage weeds from growing. A big thank you to Lynn who kindly grew hundreds of herb plants for us to carpet plant the cleared areas. These will be glorious once they are established and will attract wild life and pollinators.
So far we have planted chamomile, thyme, dill, parsley and carraway with more varieties to come.
We are once again taking part in No Mow May run by the Plantlife Charity. Not mowing your grass is one of the easiest ways of helping the environment. Letting wildflowers grow supports bees, butterflies and pollinators.
This year the pattern mown in the central square shows how many flowers can grow when left unmown. Even just leaving a small unmown patch in your garden can make all the difference.
We now have a new flag to fly in the orchard. Many thanks to Sonny and Lynn for creating our unique flag. The flag pole was created from a birch tree which needed removing from the orchard.
Despite the unseasonal cool weather, the orchard has been bathed in pink and white blossom. If you didn’t get a chance to visit there are still the wild flower meadows to see and wander through.
Why not indulge in some forest bathing as well. Bring a blanket or seat, choose a tree and sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the trees and birds!
Our Blossom Trail is back again this year. Signs are up around the village directing visitors to the Orchard. Everyone is welcome to walk around the beautiful orchard and enjoy the blossom!
