We all know that getting outside is good for our mental health, and here at The Orchard Project we are fortunate enough to see that first hand. Our harvesting volunteers express joy at being out in nature and leave feeling calmer and more connected to their communities.
Last year, thanks to funding from The Rank Foundation, we were able to further explore the link between good health and nature by hosting a series of Wellbeing Apple Harvests. These harvests were designed to help participants slow down, appreciate the beauty of their community orchards, and savour the experience of picking (and eating!) fresh, locally-grown fruit.
We wanted to choose a beautiful setting for our Wellbeing Harvests, so we opted for two of London’s oldest orchards, both of which had nearly been lost forever.
You might wonder how an orchard can be ‘lost.’ Well, the UK has a rich history of apple-growing and cider-drinking, and London is no exception to that: it has been home to many orchards for centuries. These beautiful old orchards pass from landowner to landowner over the years and, in some cases, fall badly into disrepair. They become overgrown by brambles, broken up by development projects, or simply forgotten.
But with the right care, they can become fruitful and flourishing once again. Such was the case for both Mill Hill Orchard, and the orchard at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), where we hosted our Wellbeing Harvests. These orchards were almost completely forgotten until our Celebration of Orchards project brought them back from the brink.
Today, these orchards are thriving once again, and they were the perfect backdrop for our Wellbeing Harvests, where dozens of volunteers came together to pick apples and enjoy these urban green spaces. After years of lockdown and isolation, everyone felt rejuvenated by the opportunity to contribute to their communities: one woman said she’d felt stuck in a rut since lockdown, and the harvest helped her get outdoors, be active, and meet new people. It was “exactly what I needed,” she said. Another volunteer, Trevor, remarked, “It’s been a little tough [for me] over the last few months, so it was great to get out into nature and really make a difference…There’s nothing quite like being outside.”
“It was great to get out into nature and really make a difference…There’s nothing quite like being outside.”
Trevor, volunteer at wellbeing apple harvests
It’s been a wonderful season – the biggest Lizzy Pegler, our London Projects and Enterprise Manager, has seen in the seven years she has been with us harvesting London’s apples and doing something positive with them! Together with the orchard groups and volunteers, we harvested an incredible nine tonnes, around 60,000 apples that may have otherwise been wasted.
Too wonky, damaged, or simply too many for locals to enjoy, these apples were transformed into Hawkes Urban Orchard Cider. Instead of these apples being left to rot they were used as a force for good. The community orchards involved received over £2000 in support, over 150 volunteers were engaged in the harvest, and what’s more, Hawkes made a donation to The Orchard Project for every pint sold which will go straight back into celebrating and protecting these beautiful unique spaces in London!
Want to come along to help with our 2023 harvests? Check out our events page for ones near you in London.
This blog was written in November 2022.