Blue Remembered Hills
Orchards
Besides a full quota of site management grants in 2005 some very successful training courses were organised. Notable among these were the two days in November during which a total of nearly 50 people attended four restoration pruning courses at a very old orchard near Bishop’s Castle.
The orchard is between 60-80 years old and has probably never been pruned in all that time. With instruction and guidance from Paul Davies, course leader, the site was transformed over the two days, to the delight of the owners. The success of the work there was demonstrated by the most common request after the events – “Can we come back next year to see how the trees are getting on after all our hard work?” The owners have offered a welcome to them.
Another success story was the first juicing event to be held by the Clunton Scrumpers. During the day the twin machines, an apple-macerator and a juice-squeezer (grant-aided by the BRH project and also the EU ‘Sprout’ fund), processed in the order of 60 litres of very fine apple juice, much now frozen for later use. The juicing event has become an annual fixture and a new tradition in the village.