Big Apple, the orchard association for the Much Marcle area, is holding its annual Harvestime weekend on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October.
Nine venues are ready to welcome visitors to Much Marcle over the two days.
The venues have plenty to offer visitors. There will be opportunities to enjoy the local orchards, see, hear and smell cider and perry being made and taste and buy many different varieties of apples, local ciders, perries and apple juices.
Watch us talk about the work we do restoring traditional orchards in Gloucestershire on BBC Gardeners World. Over the last 50 years Gloucestershire has lost over 75% of these amazing habitats. Here at Orchard Revival we prune and re-plant these traditional orchards and more importantly share orchard skills so others can do it too.
The segment was filmed in the beautiful Pocketts Orchard, in Whitminster where we help lead orchard restoration for the Cotswold Canals Connected project and the Gloucestreshire Wildlife Trust as part of the Stroudwater canal restoration.
Dave Kaspar identifying apples. Small number of representative samples only please!
This year’s apple celebrations at Days Cottage will be on Sunday 16 October 2022, 1-4pm.
Apple Day Afternoon with Dave Kaspar and Helen Brent-Smith, www.dayscottage.co.uk Upton Lane, Brookthorpe, GL4 0UT.
Mulled apple juice, lovely apple and pear themed cakes, family event, music, heritage fruit to try and buy, rare trees for sale. Buy juice, cider and perry from unsprayed fruit. Now is a chance to chat to Dave and Helen about your orchard/fruit questions. But they do get busy!
Browse their mature and young orchards, bring a picnic. Walk around the Museum Orchard of rare Gloucestershire varieties. Maps available (please return). Signage will be out.
Bring a few representative samples for identification and a small amount (two carrier bags) for juicing at the farm. Small charge for the latter. Only a small number of representative samples please!
One way system in operation. Yurt and roundhouse. Forest garden to explore.
They also run a rolling programme of Pruning, Grafting and Bud-Grafting workshops here in winter and summer. These will be advertised on the Days Cottage and GOT websites.
Dave Kaspar identifying apples at his and Helen’s Days Cottage Apple Afternoon in October.
An interesting piece of kit apparently available via the fund! It’s a Fruit Ripeness Spectrometer – “Handheld device for use in orchards to determine produce quality and harvest timing. Uses NIR (Near Infra-Red) to determine and measure DM (Dry Matter), total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and colour to determine ripeness” Probably not designed for our mixed variety traditional orchards!
Defra has recently launched the new Farming Investment Fund.
Much of it looks beyond the scope of your average orchard grower, but there are some things like electric fencing that might be useful.
This is the wording from their announcement:
We are very pleased to let you know that Defra has launched today, Tuesday 16th November, the new Farming Investment Fund which will offer funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment.
This fund will provide grants to farmers, foresters and growers (including contractors to these sectors) helping them to focus on more efficient production methods that will reduce resource costs, improve yields, and give them a better return. It will also support farmers who want to process and add value to their existing products, create new products, or sell their produce directly to consumers.
The Farming Investment Fund offers funding for both smaller investments - The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and for larger investments – The Farming Transformation Fund. Today, we are opening applications for the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and for grants focused on the Water Management theme of the Farming Transformation Fund, which is dedicated to arable and horticultural businesses growing, or intending to grow, irrigated food crops, ornamentals or forestry nurseries. Additional grants and themes will be made available as part of this fund in the future.
The Funds will open to applicants on Tuesday 16 November. The application deadline for the Farming, Equipment and Technology Fund will be 12:00 noon on 7th January 2022. The online checker for the Farming Transformation Fund will run until 12th January 2022, with the full application deadline on the 30th June 2022.
Open to all. We welcome everyone, especially Longney locals, Longney schoolchildren and GOT members/families and volunteers. Browse the progress made with the mature and young orchards of Gloucestershire varieties and display boards. Juice, cider and perry for sale! BBQ but bring a picnic lunch and something to sit on (we have limited benches and chairs), suitable footwear (ground is uneven). There is a composting loo and running cold water. Please bring your own handsanitizer.
The site is part of the Severn Way. The Public Right of Way can be accessed from the white railings in Longney. No vehicular access. Please park at the lower end of Yew Tree Farm or sensibly in the road, being courteous to our neighbours. There are sheep in the orchard so any dogs must be kept on leads and keep gates closed please. We have a first aid kit and one of our committee is first aid trained.
Please check the GOT website glosorchards.org nearer the time for any changes (eg national covid-19 restrictions or bad weather).
We will also celebrate twenty years since GOT was founded.
The Longney harvest is shared between several juicing and cider makers – including long-standing GOT supporters from both Days Cottage and Trust Juice.
These pictures are from Helen at Days Cottage, showing some of their harvest work a week or so ago:
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Big Apple, the orchard association for the Much Marcle area, is holding its annual Harvestime weekend on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October.
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