Orchards are as vital a part of the British landscape and culture as, say, the vineyards or olive groves of Southern Europe. Orchards are a distinctive and unique feature of our landscape and we need to raise their profile and value.
Since the 1960′s Britain’s orchards have been in steady decline, it is estimated that two thirds of our apple trees have been lost, with many local varieties of apple disappearing altogether! Counties such as Kent and Herefordshire, once smothered in orchards, have little more than a tenth left.
The dramatic decline of British orchards in recent years is however beginning to be reversed. Consumption of apples has gone through the roof this year partly due to a very hot summer when cider sales increased by 51%! While new orchards are being planted for the big cider producers such as Bulmers and Magners (about two million cider apple trees planted in the past few years on more than 5,000 acres of land), there is also a knock-on effect for the many micro-producers who have tapped into the popularity of organic foods and whose sales are also soaring.
Another positive influence comes from many organisations and companies, who are working to establish community orchards. These projects provide an educational resource for local people and schools, and offer opportunities to express the enthusiasm and expertise within the community. These orchards provide a back-drop for community-building initiatives, for example, Apple festivals, nature trails and classes in orchard maintenance & management. They also play an important role in healthy living by promoting local produce and the consumption of organic fruit, including conversion to such products as fresh apple juice, cider vinegar and real cider.
I described one such scheme in my post about Orchards for Schools and since then I have been eager to find out about similar projects. Reckless Orchard is a new, design-led, landscape architecture practice based in the Wye Valley and also in an artspace in central Bristol. They are interested in the interplay between food, rural landscapes and community gardening and how this fits with city life as well. At the Westonbirt International Festival of Gardens, Reckless Orchard exhibited a circular walled orchard garden, called Homage, in the summer of 2003.The garden paid tribute to the old apple varieties and traditional orchards now increasingly rare in our rural landscape. Reckless Orchard’s approach is to use limited resources to create something that is stylish, has meaning and is enjoyable for those who experience it.
Winifred Baker from Reckless Orchard is a history graduate with a background in community development and environmental education and she hopes people will learn from their designs…
“If visitors pick up that the Victorians had about 6000 apples to choose from and now we have about 2000 varieties of which we can buy about 15 in the supermarkets that is an added bonus. They might even think about planting a couple of apple trees in their back garden. Our idea is to make them think about the meaning of the spaces around them”.
I really like what these guys stand for, and if they can encourage people to grow their own foods, through their designs, then all the better! The future of our orchards looks more promising and who knows, we might even start to see more varieties of English apples appearing in our supermarkets.
