Slightly late with this blog, but what a fantastic turnout we had for our annual Wassailing Ceremony a week ago. About 70 people came to listen to the Clara Vale Singers performing Wassailing songs, toast the trees, and enjoy mulled cider and cake. Lovely community event encouraging our trees to fruit and thrive.
Our boundary hedge, planted 5 years ago, has grown fantastically well, providing good cover and berries for birds and insects. It has just had a prune, as it was getting a little unruly. In December we added another native shrub hedge, the plants were kindly provided by the Woodland Trust. Lets hope it grows as well as the first.
And just thought we would share these delightful comments about the orchard, left in the Comments box. We are thinking about the Bee Keeping idea.
Mixed weather for OCO’s September Apple Day, but a very successful day, with over 35 people attending to see the fruits of the orchard, have a cuppa and a tasty cake, make a apple bird feeder and help to make juice. See the process from start to finish below!
We wondered at the number of Red Admiral butterflies enjoying apple juice too! Nature and people enjoying home grown apples, wonderful.
Glorious warm September evening for racking up the hay after the field has had its annual cut. We made good use of the Coronation Picnic Table too!
A group of supporters met at the Orchard yesterday to do our annual survey to discover what is growing and living on the field. We had a special visitor, Fiona Greenwold from the Environmental Recording Information Centre in Newcastle, who came to show us how to record what we see on the iNaturalist App, so that the records form part of a wildlife database for the North East. It was a fascinating evening, thank you Fiona.
With the Goose Fair being held right next to the orchard it was an ideal opportunity for people to discover the delights of the orchard including the wildflowers and grasses. Children and families went off to discover and collect flowers from the field, and made their own wildflower memory card to take home.
Today was the Goose Fair, held for the first time since 2019 because of Covid. It was a fabulous afternoon, warm and sunny and OCO ran the Singin’ Hinnies stall to make money for the orchard. We made well over £100 and they seemed to go down very well with the fair goers. Thanks to all the ‘Hinnies’ who came to help out.
Fancy a picnic in the summer? There is now a splendid 8-seater, recycled plastic, bench at the far end of the field just ready and waiting. Our thanks go to the Parish Council who purchased the bench to commemorate the coronation of King Charles and agreed to it being sited in the orchard. A plaque is to be added soon. Thanks also to Mike Broadhurst for assembling and securing it in place. We think our new king would approve of our lovely community orchard!
A chilly May, but the blossom has been plentiful on all of our fruit trees, so looking forward to a good crop later in the year. Meadow flowers are beginning to show, with pretty Cuckooflower (also called Lady’s Smock) dotted around, the lime green Crosswort and Speedwell adding spots of blue. We also have revamped the Welcome sign and added to a wheel to the gate to make it easier to move.
A wonderful afternoon of wassailing yesterday. Over 40 people came to enjoy wassailing songs, hot cider and apple juice and delicious cakes. Everyone joined in with the wassailing chant to encourage our apple trees to grow, and banged their pans to ward off the evil spirits! The trees were then well and truly ‘toasted’. Hopefully the birds enjoyed the toast in the snow today. We finished off all cosy round the fire. Thanks for your company everyone who came.
Ovingham Community Orchard 