Ovingham Community Orchard

Our Wassailing afternoon turned out to be very wet indeed, but the Clara Vale Singers gamely sang wassailing songs from under their umbrellas with Keren Banning leading. Huge thanks to them. A sizeable number of villagers came along to and enjoyed toasting the trees followed by a well deserved cup of mulled cider and cake. Thank you everyone who came.

Earlier in the day Liz Beech and Mandy Roberts did some repair work to the willow hide to make it stronger. Now looking splendid again. Thanks to them too.

After the deluge of Saturday the Apple Day was postponed to Sunday, and what a beautiful day we had. Blue skies, lots of enthusiastic little helpers, and delicious juice made. Thanks especially to Marian, for carefully collecting samples of our gorgeous fruits to put on display.

Good to see so many people at the Goose Fair and the Meadow Memory Cards were really popular. Despite the odd rain shower many people had a wander down to the orchard to enjoy the trees and meadow, and collect for their cards. Thank you everyone.

Amazing turnout for OCO’s annual Wassailing on Sunday, with about 90 people coming to enjoy some Wassailing songs from Uplifted, and joining in with the ceremony, banging pans and ‘toasting’ the trees. The mulled cider and apple juice was delicious, as were the cakes, thank you to everyone who contributed to making it such a fun afternoon. About £150 was raised for Orchard funds too, many thanks. Cheers!

Another very successful Apple Day on Saturday. A steady stream of willing helpers picked the apples, and had a go at scratting and pressing the apples. There were generous donations to the produce stall, and about £100 was made for OCO funds. Thank you everyone who helped and attended.

We happened upon this metal bench going free on Freecycle, and here it is in place of our old ‘throne’. Not quite the same, but it will do for now. The seat of the old bench proved sound, so it has been pushed next to the Herb Planter to make another bench. So two benches for you to rest yourself upon when you visit the orchard!

During this last week the field has had its annual ‘hay’ cut, many thanks to Lois at Tom and Joe’s for the loan of their powered scythe and operator. So the field is looking very orderly again, and some of the apples are magnificent. The photo shows Lord Derby cooking apples. Gorgeous.

Sad news. The lovely bench, or throne, at the top of the orchard has finally succumbed to rot and became unsafe. The very wet winter probably contributed to its demise. So we have had to remove most of it (it will provide very good homes for bugs). We have left the central log for now, and will replace the bench when we can.

Thank you to everyone who came on Thursday evening to have a look at what lives in the field amongst the fruit trees. There is an abundancy of growth thanks to the wet weather, and a wide variety of wild flowers, including Knapweed and Selfheal, not seen recently.

Aren’t these Michaelmas Red apples beautiful! (not ready yet).

Caught the last of the apple blossom on the Newton Wonder tree today, hopefully it will transform into beautiful apples in the summer. If you are in the orchard there are lots of wild flowers growing – look out for the Cuckoo Flower (above right) and the unusual looking Water Avens in the wilder areas.