Orchard events – Page 3 – Lanchester Community Orchard

Willow Weaving Morning March 16th

On a gloriously sunny March morning, a group of Orchard Members met for a willow weaving session led by Jo from Abundant Earth.

None of us were experienced willow weavers and Jo was a fabulous teacher, showing us the different weaving techniques and helping us correct our sometimes wonky bean frames! We learnt a lot about the craft of willow weaving and about the willow we were using.

Many of our Orchard members are also members of the Margery Flatts Allotment Association and you can now see our amazing bean frames dotted around the plots waiting for the spring planting!

Please do have wander up to the Orchard and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and possibly admire our handiwork!

Wassailing January 2024

We were lucky after such a rainy start of the year to have a dry and occasionally sunny day for our Wassailing.

We started the day with a winter pruning session. At 11.30 members and family gathered in the square for the Wassailing. Wassailing is a traditionally way of thanking the fruit trees for last year’s crop and to feed them with bread and cider to encourage the trees to produce a wonderful crop of fruit this year.

Traditionally everyone makes a lot of noise and taps the trees to wake them up from their winter sleep. Every year someone volunteers to be the Green Man. This year we had a Green Woman. In folklore the Green Man represents new life and often attends Wassailing events.

Many thanks to our wonderful musicians, singers and dancers for making the Wassailing such a success. Thanks also to Paul and Sonny for opening their home for us to share lunch together.

Orchard Table in the Village!

Sue and Lynn set up our orchard table and invited everyone to taste the different varieties of apple. Many of the apples and fruit we grow in the orchard are heritage varieties and can not be bought in shops. You can find more information and how to become a member of the Community Orchard by visiting the ‘Orchard’ page of our website.

Fruit Picking and Juicing Day 14th October 2023

Well done to all of the Orchard members and friends who turned up to help pick our apples and make juice. Despite not being such a big crop as last year we still picked the apples from 50 trees to share with orchard members and produced quite a few bottles of delicious, organic apple juice.

Allotment BBQ June 2023

The Margery Flatts Allotment Association organised a Summer BBQ and invited Orchard Members along. A big thanks to Gill and Steve for organising this event. Despite the rather mixed weather we still managed to consume lots of delicious pizzas and marshmallows!

Big Help Out Day 8th May 2023

To celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, the orchard took part in the Big Help Out Day on the bank holiday Monday. Despite the rainy weather we had lots of visitors and everyone was able to help out building a new bench to commemorate the coronation. The Junior Wild life group also attended and our young visitors were able to make bug hotels.

Earth Hour 25th March 2023

At 8.30 pm all around the world on the 25th March, people switched off their lights for an hour to highlight the issues of climate change. Despite the very wet day, the rain stopped just in time for us to celebrate Earth Hour in the orchard. Well done to everyone who braved the weather to attend and to all our members who celebrated Earth Hour at home. Same time next year!