Connecting living systems, food and community
We had a great trip to Andrew’ Lear’s nursery at Spittlefield near Perth to pick up the apple trees. Do pop in if you’re nearby, he grows all kinds of fruit trees and is happy to impart his vast knowledge. Andrew’s website is https://plantsandapples.com
We’re getting ready to travel to Banchory for the Planting Day on 24th April. People who are joining The Far Orchard will be able to pick up their tree and brand a tree tag with The Far Orchard Logo. We’ve been preparing the tree tags with wood preservative and hanging them out to dry on our washing line!
The displays of cherry blossom are amazing at the moment, we’re hoping the apple blossoms will be out by the weekend so we can start to find the existing apple trees around Banchory and invite them to join The Far Orchard.
We have discovered that here is a great FruitWatch citizen science project run by the University of Reading at the moment. The public have been asked to track flowering fruit trees across the country to help determine whether climate change is changing blooming patterns and is one of the largest studies of its kind. Fruit trees are highly dependent on insect pollination to produce fruit, and climate change is impacting both the timing of fruit tree flowering and pollinator flight, which may reduce pollination and fruit production. Help is needed to understand how flowering dates are changing across the UK and data is being gathered on the four common fruits including apple.
Taking part contributes to knowledge about the changing climate. All the information is at https://fruitwatch.org/ords/r/livefw/fruit-watch101/home
We spent a lovely afternoon in the company of Mark and Fiona Hope who are members of Deeside CAN (Climate Action Network) (a great organisation (http://www.deesidecan.org.uk)Â They took us on a guided tour of Banchory and showed us two sites where they planted apple trees in 2021. These trees will be joining The Far Orchard Network and we are looking forward to collaborating with Deeside CAN in their various projects including the Wildlife Friendly Village initiative.
It was a real pleasure to see more of Banchory in the company of long term residents with lots of stories.
If you’d like to join The Far Orchard with an existing tree, please click through HERE
We travelled to meet Andrew Lear the ‘Apple Tree Man’ at his tree nursery near Perth. Andrew had put aside more than 70 trees for The Far Orchard. It was great to see the trees, which are two years old and to hear from Andrew about growing fruit trees in Scotland.
Andrew is so knowledgeable and generous with his knowledge and we enjoyed picking his brains on the difference between the cultivar’s, how far bees will travel to pollinate apples trees (up to 5 miles!), how you get an apple to spread along a wall, and how far North apple trees will grow.
He has agreed to come up to our planting day on the 24th April – the day that The Far Orchard hosts come to the Barn to pick up their trees. He will hold court and answer any questions that people have about planting and care for their small trees.Â
He has such an infectious enthusiasm for all things apple related that he will be great member of the team on the day.
Andrew’s website : https://plantsandapples.com/
We are coming up to Banchory! We have done most of the work on the project with The Barn over the phone or on Zoom, which, like most people, we are tired of. It will be great to meet people in person and we are planning another visit for the Planting Day in April, where we are looking forward to introducing ourselves to The Far Orchard hosts. Every time we think into the future of the project, we imagine sharing creative activities, events and new ideas that have been suggested from within the Far Orchard community.
We feel more and more that arts projects like The Far Orchard that create a sense of shared endeavour with others are an important part of our future. And at the moment, during quite a dark period, projects that are about optimism, connecting to the natural world, growing and sharing and solving problems together seem to be the right sort of adventures to have.
The Far Orchard 