January to March may not be our busiest time for production, but it’s one of the most important times of the year for us. This is when we dedicate time to our tree planting projects - something that has been at the heart of Fruits of the Forage since 2017.
As you may have seen on our socials over the past few months, Bert has been sharing more about why we do this work and what it takes to create and maintain a young orchard.
Over the past 8-9 years, we’ve given away over 1,500 trees. By taking suckers from existing trees and growing them into saplings, we’re able to share them with schools, charities, businesses- really anyone who wants them. It’s all part of our mission to ensure that these often-overlooked fruit varieties continue to grow here in Cheshire.
Earlier this year, Bert revisited one of the first large orchards we ever foraged-once home to Jacobs plums, greengages, damsons, cherry plums along with the ubiquitous Victoria plum. Sadly, much of that orchard has now been lost, with the land sold and developed for housing. It’s a reminder of how easily these varieties can disappear when they are no longer commercially valued, and why our tree planting work matters more than ever.
Another key part of what we do is planting new orchards, like our orchard in Bosley. Many of the orchards we forage from are over 40 years old and often neglected. As a result, the trees can become unproductive or difficult to harvest. By planting new, mixed fruit orchards, we’re helping to future-proof varieties of plums, apples, and pears- while also creating more diverse and resilient farmland.
Most recently, we’ve introduced elderflower trees to our Bosley orchard. Much of the elderflower we currently forage has grown too tall to harvest easily with old trees loosing the vigour to produce nice big flower heads. By cultivating our own, we can manage the trees by cutting them back to promote fresh healthy growth that will produce an abundance of big heads of blossom.
After raising elder cuttings in pots in the past we have learnt the easiest and most successful method by far is to simply take a cutting in late winter and stick it in a veg or flower bed, making sure a bud site is at the base of the cutting. Wait 12 months and you will have a rooted tree ready to plant out.
Elder is a fast-growing tree, so we’re excited to see how it develops- and we’ll be taking even more cuttings this year. Hopefully by next year the trees planted this winter will be producing a decent crop.
Tree planting has become increasingly popular in recent years, which is fantastic to see. But planting is only the beginning. The real work comes in maintaining those trees especially if they are fruit trees. Each March, we spend days revisiting our planting sites- some now over five years old. Carrying out formative pruning to form a nice shape to the trees and mulching the trees with manure, wool or wood chip to give the trees the best possible start to the season by suppressing grass and adding nutrients.
This work is all about looking ahead- protecting heritage varieties, supporting biodiversity, and ensuring that the ingredients we rely on today will still be here for years to come.
