Jim Chapman will be at the Malvern Autumn Show as usual with his perry pear display.
Friday-Sunday 23-25 September 2022 at Three Counties Showground, Malvern.
Our display boards are now installed in the barn at Longney – following sterling work by Stuart, Pete, Ann and Keith who had to battle quite a lot of mud to get onto the site. Our thanks to all of them.
These are the boards used at the Folk Museum two years ago – always intended for Longney afterwards, and now they’re there!
Picture by Pete Smith
It’s apple picking time and there are events all over the county to celebrate the harvest and customs of traditional orchards. Many are billed as ‘Apple Day’ a concept established by the charity Common Ground way back in 1990. Read more about that on their website at http://www.commonground.org.uk/apple-day/ Many Gloucestershire Apple day events are listed on our website on the Events pages at https://glosorchards.org/home/events/category/allevents/
One particularly exciting event, in the centre of Gloucester itself, is at the Folk of Gloucester (Formerly the Folk Museum) where Gloucester Civic Trust will be hosting the Annual Apple day on Saturday 19th of October 2019 from 10am to 4pm. It will be a Celebration of Gloucestershire Apples and Cider Making.
Come and see Rosie the Cider horse, who is coming for the first time this year to help turn the apple mill and make Apple Day in Gloucester a success. She is taking over from Fergus who has now retired after five years of service.
“This is one of the last fully operational horse powered apple mills in the West Country” said Alex Bailey, Chairman of the Operations Team at The Folk, “and we are very fortunate that we can still demonstrate how it works”
There will also be a chance to try some rare breed apples provided by Gloucestershire Orchard Trust and they will be there to sell apple juice and ciders and provide advice on looking after your own apple trees.
There will be lots of Children’s activities available and Morris Dancers from Lassington Oak performing and giving Morris Dancing workshops.
We will have live music from a folk band and Bygonz performing at the event too.
For extra refreshment there will be Severn Cider running a bar with some of their favourite craft ciders available to buy.
This is a preview event for the Folk of Gloucester (Formerly Folk Museum) which is opening in Spring 2020 and will be an exhibition and events space housed in a large Tudor building in Lower Westgate, Gloucester. It will tell the story of Gloucester Folk from Tudor Times to the Modern Day.
The Folk will be operating a café during the event offering Teas, Coffees, Ciders and soft drinks.
Full Press Release is available here: https://glosorchards.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Apple-Day-Press-Release-2019.pdf
With Apple Day looming and the apple and pear crop ripening rapidly – some varieties earlier than others of course – it is time to think about orchard events and shows.
We have many listed on the website – including many dates for Apple Day – an event originally set as being October 21st by Common Ground (see http://commonground.org.uk/projects/orchards/apple-day/) but, not surprisingly, now spread out across many early autumn weekends.
Do have a look at the events list on the website – and let us know if you want your event added. The events page is at https://glosorchards.org/home/events/category/allevents/
The next event we’ll be at will be Malvern Autumn Show – this coming weekend – more about that soon…
Many congratulations to Mattias Pihlwret (manager at National Perry Pear Centre at Hartpury) who won:
Mattias is a GOT committee member – and he obviously knows what he’s doing when it comes to Cider and Perry!
A reminder that it’s our AGM (in a pub!) this coming Saturday, 27th April – where, as well as AGM business, we will be discussing the historic Fish House within our orchards at Longney, learning about Mason bees from the people at Mason Bees UK and, if you stay until after lunch, walking around the orchard at Longney to see the blossom and recent changes (incl the restored barn and some sheep!).
Full details here: https://glosorchards.org/home/event/got-annual-general-meeting/
Last Saturday, 16th March, we held a networking event for community orchard groups at Toddington Village Hall. Far too much was discussed to be reported here – maybe later when we’ve digested it all – but here are some pictures of the many and varied impromptu presentations given to everyone as we toured round the various stalls and displays.
Many thanks to all who attended, and to those who helped. Especially to Alison Parfitt who conceived and masterminded the event.
Jim Chapman led a fascinating workshop on 15th September at Hartpury Orchard Centre/National Perry Pear Centre, with an introduction, guidance on use of manuals and keys to dessert and culinary pears, plus using manuals and a new approach to keys to perry pears. This was followed by a practical workshop identifying samples of pears, apples and plums (the latter from stones).
There was an opportunity to view for comparison an extensive display of named perry pears (a record 97 varieties!).
Mattias was on hand at lunchtime to show the cider and perry making equipment and provide tastings.
In addition, Jim gave advice on perry orchard planting, choice of variety, rootstock etc and a tour of the perry trial orchard.
GOT was on hand to advise on county and national networking opportunities and resources.
This event was funded by the Three Counties Traditional Orchard Project/Heritage Lottery Fund.
Photos by Ann Smith.
The stone fruit conference at Hartpury College in August was a great success – well-attended and with wide-ranging talks.
Jim Arbury, Fruit Specialist at RHS Wisley, introduced us to plums and cherries, covering traditional and modern types and varieties, Helen Stace of Colwall Orchard Group told us the history of Colwall’s orchards, the entrepreneurial approach once taken by the local landowner in establishing orchards and fruit-processing around the whole village, and the recent work by the Orchard Group to restore the orchards.
Nick Dunn, from Frank P Matthews Trees for Life, reviewed stone fruit pests and diseases and new approaches to treatment. Jenni Waugh gave a lively talk on the importance of Pershore in plum production with particular emphasis on ‘how the Pershore Plum won the Great War’ (via jam for the troops!).
Paul Read, Suffolk Traditional Orchard Group, discussed the problems of stone fruit identification, particularly the opportunities from the new digital plum library and the FruitID website and Matt Ordidge, University of Reading, talked about the role of local collections and the context of the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, now curated by University of Reading..
All this against a background of many stalls and displays manned by organisations and individuals from across the three counties and beyond.
The day demonstrated how valuable these get-togethers can be in getting participants up-to-date, briefed on the wider picture, meeting and networking and generally enjoying themselves.
Thanks to Three Counties Traditional Orchard Project for organising it, particularly Karen Humphries and her orchard champion volunteers. And to Hartpury College for an excellent venue. The pictures here are courtesy of Karen.
Today we launched our Orchards Exhibition at Gloucester Life Museum, where it will stay until just before Christmas. The launch party was a modest affair, but was attended by many of our most enthusiastic supporters! This is the first time we have created an exhibition of this sort and we are hopeful this approach will enthuse an even wider audience than usual.
We are very grateful to Three Counties Traditional Orchard Project and the Heritage Lottery Fund for supporting the exhibition and to Gloucester Life Museum for hosting it. You can see it at the Museum until mid-December, and after that some of the panels will transfer to the barn at our orchards in Longney. Some pictures from today’s launch follow below as a slide show.
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