Scotland's charity for traditional orchards
Only a few days to go before Orchard Gathering 2014.
There are still a few tickets left, and for the evening ceilidh
Click here to book now on Eventbrite
This is what we’re hoping will happen at the event:
See our webpage for details
Nick Nairn is doing a piece on undervalued local food. Choosing the apple as one of three local foods, Landward came to Newburgh a few weeks ago to film. It is after all the place that probably most deserves the accolade ‘fruit town of Scotland’. As well as filming in the Community Orchard, they also visited a town orchard of a member of Newburgh Orchard Group.
See it all on Friday 24th October, at 7pm on BBC2, and thereafter on iPlayer.
How do we celebrate and grow the orchard movement in Scotland as part of the local food revolution?
Click here to book now on Eventbrite
You are cordially invited to take part in the first Orchard Gathering on Friday 7th November. This will be an open event calling people together from across Scotland who are passionate about orchard trees, their fruits (and nuts), and how we strengthen the culture, knowledge and skills of keeping them. We believe the following things will happen at the event:
These are exciting yet demanding times. All over the country, old orchards are waking up and new ones are being planted, yet at the same time the supermarkets retain their stifling globalised influence: despite the apple being Scotland’s favourite fruit, our shop shelves are bare of Scottish-grown apples. But the orchard tree, and the apple in particular, has deep roots in our culture, and seems poised for a resurgence.
We will be using innovative participative leadership techniques to ensure that everybody present has a voice, and also harvesting the fruits of all the conversations as we go along, taking notes, photos and video that will be uploaded to a website of the event.
This is an event in two halves: discussion and celebration – you are invited to both. Once the purposeful, focussed daytime part is finished, we will move on to an cultural evening with music, storytelling, dinner, a play and ceilidh.
Tickets are by donation from £5 for the daytime and £5 for the evening (£2.50 unwaged).
Click here to book now on Eventbrite
This is a collaborative event hosted by Fife Diet, Orchard Research & Enterprise CIC and Forth Environment Link. For up to date event info please visit any of the three websites:
PROPOSED PROGRAMME (to be finalised)
1000: Registration, tea, coffee, freshly pressed apple juice
1030: Welcome circle including an interactive map of Scotland’s orchards and update on the National Orchard Inventory.
1130: What has been achieved so far?
In this session we will explore and discuss what is happening across all sectors of orchard growing, generating the agenda on the day to fit the programme to the people.
1300: Lunch with practical demonstrations and stalls featuring:
1430: What is needed to help grow the orchard movement?
Gathering everyone together, we will use the World Cafe format to discuss how to grow and strengthen the orchard movement.
1600: Next Steps
What do we think are the key next steps? How much can you commit to making them happen? With a summary and closing speech by Fife Diet’s Mike Small.
1700: Day event closes
1730: Sit-down dinner with an orchard fruit theme. With a welcome by Mrs Mash the Storytelling Cook.
1900: The Forgotten Orchard. A play for all ages by Eco-Drama. Followed by a tasting of all of Scotland’s apple varieties
2100 – 2230: Ceilidh with Hud Yer Wheesht ceilidh band, plus others – feel free to take a turn!
Click here to book now on Eventbrite
With thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for the funding to make this happen. Forth Valley Orchards Initiative is funded by CSGN. Header photograph by Clementine Sandison.
The completion of the first of two major steps in the creation of a National Orchard Inventory for Scotland is reported here. It has been over a century since the last comprehensive national orchard survey was carried out.
This first step is a detailed deskstudy using a geographical information system together with diverse other sources of data. Also reported is the pilot carried out in the Scottish Borders for the second step which is Field Verification by volunteer survey.
The report is launched on Friday 30th May 2014 at the Gardening Scotland event, Royal Highland Showground, Ingliston. Come and see us there Stand 187 in the Living Garden zone, and perhaps try some lovely Scottish cider !
The Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is the Scottish Government’s mechanism for distributing land-based payments from the EU funding pot. A new programme runs from 2014 – 2020, and its shape and detail are being consulted on until the end of the February.
Leaving orchards out of this programme effectively means that the restoration, replanting, maintenance of our traditional orchards is very unlikely to be funded under the SRDP. That is a blow to the very many of us that are working towards an orchard revival, because SRDP is the biggest pot of land-based funding by far.
As an orchard community we need to make our voices heard. The easiest way to do that is to make a formal comment on the Consultation. It’s not hard – here’s how:
1. To have a look at the documents, go to ‘Section 9: Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme’ (page 50) of the draft proposal:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0044/00440079.pdf
So no mention of orchards here. The other part that should be relevant is Annex C “Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme OPTIONS. Provisional list for consultation” (Page 11) of the Annexes:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0044/00440080.pdf
While farmland birds, game cover, habitat for waders, ancient woodland cover, hedgerow restoration amongst many others are important – so are the omitted orchards that are still being lost in Scotland.
2. Go to https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/eu-rural-development-policy/srdp-2014-20-stage-2/consultation It looks like a big list – but you only need to fill in two sections. The first one is ‘Information about you’, and then,
3. Go to ‘Section 9: Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme’.
Click how dissatisfied you are with the Scheme, and then write some comments.
You might want to say how you value traditional orchards for their cultural heritage, how lovely the Spring blossom looks, how you look forward to the first fruit on the season, how there is a growing interest in using the produce, and training local people in orchard management.
And how their omission from the forthcoming programme of the SRDP will have serious negative consequences for an orchard revival – especially for the larger old heritage orchards with the highest biodiversity.
4. Click on the Finish/Submit button and that’s it. Cross fingers and hope that the comments are acted on. The closing date is 28th Feb 2014.
Together we can make a change for the better.
The steering group of the Heritage Pear Project is meeting at Harlow Carr, near Harrogate on Saturday 8th March. The meeting is intended to agree how to move the project into its next stage, and put in place the measures to record the UK best heritage pear trees. If you are interested please contact heritagepears@orchardrevival.org.uk
Volunteers survey orchards to increase our collective knowledge. Could you?
Knowing where orchards are will help to focus resources for their revival.
Groups are the backbone of our Orchard Revival. Networking makes us stronger.
The most aged of our orchard trees tend to be the pears – they can live to around 250 years. That’s some heritage!
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