Category: Updates

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Far Orchard Artist for 2023/4 Announced

Image: Grant Anderson

It has always the intention for Far Orchard Artists Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges to take a back seat after the first year and to invite different artists to work with the network. The Far Orchard intends to develop over time not just by adding new trees and hosts but by using creativity as a way to explore and deepen our understanding of the natural world around us. By introducing new artists to the Far Orchard, tree hosts will be able to engage with the project in new ways.

We are delighted to welcome Caitlin Dick as the Far Orchard artist for 2023/24. Her practice is inspired by the environment, utilising sculpture, film and printmaking to realise her ideas. She focuses on the intersections between people and the environment, specifically she likes to concentrate on the minuscule, the microscopic and the parts of nature we overlook. Most recently, she has been interested in the role of care through relationships in nature, questions how care can be presented and nurtured. Caitlin graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2017 and went on to complete a Masters at Edinburgh College of Art in 2018. She is also a beekeeper.

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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 Pollinators

With apple trees in full bloom, we’ve been trying to snap some of the pollinators at work.

Apple trees requires pollen to be transferred from the male part of the flower to the female part of a different but compatible variety of apple tree. This is called cross pollination and must happen at bloom time. Without the transfer of pollen to a compatible tree nearby, there wont be any apples! We’ll be asking all our tree hosts to look out for other apple trees nearby to make sure their trees are in pollination range. We’ll be mapping all the trees and planting new trees in any gaps.

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Getting Ready for Planting Day

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

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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

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Meeting the Trees

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. 

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/

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A Start

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.