Category: Community

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The Beekeepers Tea Party

The Far Orchard Anniversary Event

We are delighted to announce The Beekeepers Tea Party at the Barn on Sunday 23rd April. 1-3pm at The Barn

The Beekeepers Tea Party will be a warm and family friendly event, with tea and cakes, sampling of local honey and a chance to meet beekeepers and talk to them about their relationship with bees. Participants will be be able to make a Bee Hotel to take away, there’ll be advice on planting bee friendly gardens and interactive installations exploring pollinators.

At this time of year when the apple blossom starts to open and pollinators become active, The Far Orchard is keen to deepen our understanding of the pollinating insects in our landscape. Like much of the natural world, insect pollinators are under pressure from pollution and habitat loss and the event offers an opportunity to learn more and to find ways to support them. Without pollinators we would have a much harder time growing the food we need.

This event marks the one-year anniversary of the planting of the Far Orchard and is a great opportunity to celebrate the anniversary and meet with other hosts. Creating opportunities to build a rich and connected community network is a key element of the ethos of the Far Orchard. See HERE for images of the event.

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Apple Pruning Workshop

15 January 2023

Join us for an opportunity to get “up close and personal” with apple trees and gain valuable hands-on experience of the whole pruning process. This workshop will be led by our apple expert Andrew Lear, the Appletreeman. It is ideal for complete beginners, and for those wishing to refresh skills.

The day will run from 10:30am to 2:30pm at the Barn. 

Andrew will go through the different methods of pruning and the reasons for it. You will also be shown all the tools you will need and have their safe use and maintenance explained to you. You are welcome to bring along what you normally prune with, including loppers, secateurs and sharpening tools for Andrew to comment on.

Andrew will be demonstrating on the veteran James Grieve and espaliers in the Walled Garden and other trees in the neighbouring allotments.

There will be ample time to ask questions and become completely confident with techniques. Bring photos of your trees for individual advice. Andrew will also be happy to briefly answer questions on apple tree pests, diseases & disorders.

Wear warm cloths, gloves and strong footwear and please bring some lunch. The Barn will provide hot drinks and some sugary treats such as cake to keep your strength up! Donations to cover costs are welcome.

For more information on Andrew, see his website https://plantsandapples.com/about/

If you’d like to sign up for the workshop please email thefarorchard@thebarnarts.co.uk before 11 January 2023.

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Plenty? A Festival Exploring More and Less

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Plenty? event at the Barn on 22/23rd October. As well as being a traditional harvest festival with apple pressing and juicing, the event explored ideas around how we can work together to live with less to keep planetary ecosystems healthy and sustainable into the future. There was music, film, installation, participatory activities, exhibitions, workshops and talks exploring these themes. https://www.thebarnarts.co.uk/article/plenty

We were there with The Far Orchard Zone, talking about the project and exploring how we might create new networks of care with an ecological focus.

Below: Apple pressing at the PLENTY Festival.

Images Grant Anderson

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The First Apples!

Even though the apple trees were only planted in April some of them have produced apples this year and existing trees have had a bumper harvest. Thanks to all The Far Orchard hosts for sending photos in.

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The Planting Day

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Barn to pick up their tree on 24th April, brand their tree tag and pin their location on The Far Orchard Map. Andrew Lear our fruit tree expert was busy all afternoon answering questions. It was lovely to meet everyone and start the process of forming The Far Orchard Community. More images HERE

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Visiting Deeside CAN

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) 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