A Celebration of Orchards project – an update
This month, we have been busy finishing the planning for Stage 2 of our A Celebration of Orchards project, provisionally to be supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Heineken and Greater London Authority.
This will be an inspirational orchard restoration, education and events programme to celebrate and protect London’s rich orchard heritage. The programme aims to leave a legacy of restored orchards throughout the capital, connect people of many ages and backgrounds, develop key skills, benefit wildlife, preserve natural heritage, and provide fresh, local produce as well as juice and cider to communities. To do this, we will work together with many other brilliant organisations, local authorities, and community groups. If we are successful with funding, the project will run for three years and we will:
- Restore, survey and identify fruit varieties at 30 older orchards around London
- Support loads of fantastic, fun community events at orchards all over London – including wassails, Apple Days, and celebrating fruit/orchard traditions from the UK and around the world
- Develop teaching resources on orchards with the Jamie Oliver Kitchen Garden Project (check out our guest blog here for more details) and hold events in schools/orchards aimed at getting kids excited about the natural world, fruit growing and healthy eating through fun, participatory activities.
- Offer an accredited training programme on community urban orchard management as well as bespoke training opportunities in orchard skills (i.e. pruning, grafting, fruit identification, orchard management, etc.) to apprentices, horticultural trainees, and people across London.
- Starting up an innovative harvesting, juicing and cider making programme – bringing people together to harvest, process and enjoy community-made juice and cider.
We’ll keep you posted as plans are confirmed. In the meantime, if you have any ideas, questions or want to get involved in specific activities – please contact Stephanie at stephanie@theurbanorchardproject.org or Erin at erin@theurbanorchardproject.org
