WASSAIL: 2 February 2020

10 YEARS CELEBRATION OF OUR COMMUNITY ORCHARD

Helen

We recently held a well attended party in St Peter’s Hall to mark 10 years of successful apple and pear growing in our Community Orchard. It was great to see many of the original volunteers and to be able reminisce about our early struggles with the nettle and brambles. Although we saw the site in December 2009 we didn’t actually plant the trees until November 2010. There was a huge amount of work to do, and in the early days there were work parties at least weekly with massive bonfires as we cleared the site following 40 years of neglect.

Helen would like to thank the committee (Lorna Ball, Peter Jarvis, Jennie Ephgrave and Pauline Whyte) for their continued enthusiasm and expertise. And we are grateful to our Friends who generously support the venture with annual donations. Many of the early volunteers are still working regularly with us and we can look forward to the next ten years with confidence.

 Jeremy Turtle & John Gilbert volunteers from the start

Ed Heaver & Andrew Claringbull our Wassail Masters

We can be proud we've started our Orchard ….and it can only get better as years go by. We are at the very forefront of a movement round the world to re green spaces and in our Orchard we are encouraging wildlife by being insecticide and pesticide free and allowing the grass to grow longer and become more diverse with many wild flowers. We are encouraging a reduction in food miles and want to teach children where our food comes from.

 Steve Thresher & Bob Paterson regular volunteers

This can only work if more people contribute not only in work parties but by taking responsibility for individual aspects such as hedges, steps, bonfires etc and some of the social activities too. Our Wassail is assured for the next year or so but we will always need more people offering to help.

Here’s to the next ten fruity years!

ORCHARD PARTY

  

      Do come to our 
    ORCHARD PARTY 

    To celebrate our 10^th anniversary

St Peter’s Hall (The Glebe Room)

On Saturday 12 October from 6 to 8

Revisit our journey from forgotten wasteland to productive Orchard

Results of the Photographic Competition and presentation of prizes

Wine and nibbles…..

ALL ARE WELCOME

Helper needed for a tidy up....

Hope you're all enjoying the heat and have had good summer holidays. Disappointing that there's so little fruit this year.....but there will be many more good years I am sure.....so....

 

It's that time again.....we need to gather to cut the hedges, weed the trees and cut back the bramble in the Orchard.

Please do come along to help.... 

 

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 18TH FROM 9-30 AM

 

If anyone has a hedge trimmer for the laurel that would be marvellous! If you let me know in advance I can get hold of the ladder....

 

Otherwise I think usual tools ...secateurs,hand forks, loppers, rakes, kneelers, weed buckets

 

Usual break for coffee at 11am....all are welcome

 

With good wishes....and looking forward to seeing a good crowd there

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2019

We are hoping that you've all been planning your entries for our PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION.....we are hoping many of you will be entering.  THERE ARE SPECIAL CATEGORIES FOR CHILDREN.

Show us how artistic you are....

Entries can be delivered to the Memorial Stores in Limpsfield from Monday 9 September (there will be an envelope on the windowsill behind the till) until 1  October

Exciting.....there are prizes to be won....and these will be presented at our Celebratory Party on Saturday 12 October in St Peter's Hall, Limpsfield All details to follow.....do make a date in your diary. 

All enquiries to: (01883713160) helenellson205@btinternet.com

GOOD LUCK!

Add caption

CAN YOU HELP....?

Our wonderful Community Orchard has now been up and running since Dec 2009 ......  very nearly 10 years. In that time we have created a wonderfully productive place where (most years) we harvest apples pears and damsons, celebrate the passing of the seasons with blossom viewing, harvests and Wassails and gathering together to prune,mulch and weed.

Your committee has worked hard in that time.....preparing the site, choosing, planting and maintaining 36 trees and 250 hedging plants, setting us up as a Community Interest Company, managing the finances, sustaining local interest and keeping records of our most generous Friends.

 The Orchard is however a COMMUNITY project and now we feel we need a greater input from others in the local area.

 One very pressing need is to have some technical support....managing the digital records, communication and publicity. We all feel we need some young blood ....someone with up to date computer skills!

 Please do contact us for further information.....Helen 01883 713160, Lorna 01883 712312 Peter 01883 713716

Trail Walk and Blossom viewing April 2019

On Sunday 14 April we gathered to celebrate five years of the Limpsfield Trail.....a group of us walked the route from Limpsfield Church (St Peter's) up through the village to the Orchard to take a look at the blossom....mostly pear which is out well before the apple. We enjoyed, of course, apple cake and tea.....and a good catch up with some Orchardeers who were in at the start.

FIVE YEARS OLD......

We are celebrating 5 years of our Limpsfield Community Orchard Trail which was officially opened in May 2014 by Cllr Nick Skellet.

 

We would like you to join us at the lych gate at St Peter's Church at 3pm on Sunday 14 April so that we can walk gently up to the Orchard together.

 

There will be tea and apple cake waiting for us....and hopefully lots of beautiful blossom too. 

 

Do join us......if you don't want to do the walk come along to the Orchard anyway.....you will be very welcome

 

Looking forward to seeing lots of you there.

 

Early Blossom?

This pic shows a Buerre Hardy Pear which is budding up nicely. 
We had 13 people in the Orchard on Saturday 23 March to weed and mulch round the trees. It's all looking nicely tidy now.....and we look forward to a good crop. I think the blossom will be 2 to 3 weeks early.....unless we have some late frost we should do well.

Spring in the Orchard

.....the first Mirabelle in full blossom on 9 March 2019.

Very early.....

PRUNING 2019

I am pleased to say that we have now done our 2019  apple and pear pruning with the help of Jan Lambourn.  Some of the trees sadly are still showing some canker meaning that we had to prune quite severely in places but on the whole we are pleased with growth and there are some good fruit buds fattening up.  The Mirabelle are already in full flower.

The harvest will all depend now on whether we get frosts at the time the blossoms are opening.

We are very much hoping it will be a better year for the pears which were marvellous in 2017 but very disappointing in 2018.

WASSAIL 20 JANUARY 2019

The following account was written by Theodore Turner our Duke of Edinburgh Orchard

Volunteer

On the 20 January, 150 people flocked to the British Legion and the Community Orchard to take part in the annual Wassail.  The moon was big and bright and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful night. We met at the British Legion where torches were lit. We took different instruments to make loud noises and wore brightly coloured clothes to scare away the evil spirits to ensure a good
harvest. Led by Andrew Claringbull, our Wassail Master, and encouraged by the North Downs Drummers, with glowing drums, we processed to theorchard. After singing the traditional songs around the blazing bonfire we headed to the king tree where the wassail princess offered the king tree an apple, bread and salt to make sure we got a good crop of apples. The bread to feed the birds, the apple to give back to the orchard and the salt for purification. The Wassail bowl was passed around and everyone took a sip of the cider. We then headed to the hot dogs, mulled cider and apple cakes (which disappeared immediately). The remaining people gathered round the fire to get the remaining warmth from it, sparks and embers floating up to the brilliant moon. 
I have been coming to the wassail for a while now and this was one of the most pleasurable evening yet, probably because I gave something back to the community as I am doing my DofE volunteering at the orchard. I remember digging out the concrete right at the beginning. It is wonderful to see the orchard now.

In the words of the traditional song;

Love and joy come to you,

And to you your wassail too;

And God bless you and send you

A Happy New Year.