First substantial harvest of 2014

Looking back over photos from previous years to see when we took pictures of fruit we'd harvested we can see that fruit seems to be ripe at least a couple of weeks earlier than previously.

This week we had lots to take away, shared between the 4 volunteers on the session. We picked figs, apples (a couple of trees
seem to have ripe fruit), pears, blackberries and the last of the mid season raspberries (Polka).

Here is the evidence!

Harvested fruit 18th August 2014

Thanks Abi

At Orchard 49 we really appreciate volunteers, the Orchard can't do without them.  This year Abi Paine came along, she found out about us via Google and volunteered very regularly on our Monday evening sessions.  Sadly though, at the outset she said she'd be leaving for Australia so wouldn't be around for long.

That may be so, and we said Bye to Abi last week, but while she volunteered she was a star.  On our last session it was raining really hard, so we made bee boxes under cover and here she is with her bee box.

Abi with her bee box

And with bee box builder, extraordinaire, Pete Abel...

These boxes will be painted and sold to raise money for the Orchard.

Abi also set up an instagram account for the orchard. If you'd like to follow us on Instagram look for Orchard_49

Work session 4th August 2014

Another productive session. As we'd had some heavy rain over the weekend we were able to dig up some plants that had become way to big along the fence line with a neighbouring allotment plot.

We've been needing to do this for some time, but because the soil type on the Orchard is clay its hard to do anything like that during a prolonged dry spell... you lterally can't get a fork into the ground.

We also finally transplanted a couple of gooseberry bushes into the long raised bed - another long over due task.

We've been enjoying raspberries and blackberries while we work and are noticing that some of the apple varieties are ripening very much earlier than in previous years. This makes planning when to hold an apple day really hard.  We usually ask plotholders on the site to donate fallers from their trees (of which there are many) and have apples from the orchard to taste (among other things). But if apples are ripening very early then there won't be much to juice or taste... In the past Apple Day has been in late September/early October. So, we are pondering what to do on that!

Thanks to Abi, Debbie, Pete and Julie for all their hard work.