16th October 2021 – our ‘Awesome Orchards’ event.
Heavy rain fell as we pitched up in the first hour! We had agreed to cancel the event
should there be rain . . . but we didn’t listen to our own advice.
We convinced ourselves
to carry on and that drier weather would follow. Luckily it did. And we had an enjoyable event.
Sadly all our orchard apples had been stripped from their trees in July and August, months before they were ripe and tasty, and none remained for us to use.
As in previous years, we received apples donated from gardens including Red Delicious and others with made up names such as Tilmaston Tipple, Burghill Bounties and Moss Mayhem (a pear variety!). FOMP also purchased named varieties from the local greengrocer to be sure of enough varieties for tasting: Spartan, Russet, Cox, Braeburn, Granny Smith and Gala.
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| Apples lined up for tasting |
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| Some donated apple varieties |
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| Bought in named varieties |
Our apple tasting activity proved popular. Who would have thought apples could come in different shapes, sizes and tastes? The most popular apple by taste turned out to be the unknown variety given the name Burghill Bounties.
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| Tasting apples |
Another popular activity
was the children’s treasure hunt. Children visited orchard trees to find letter
clues that would spell a word. When they worked out the word, each child won a small prize.
Pippa’s apple cake and pear
loaf were very popular refreshments.
Thanks to Nathalia for
researching and making rather attractive orchard fruit tree labels to tie to
the tree guards.
Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers and visitors who joined us in celebration of orchards. Around 50 people attended.
