Springwatch Christmas Special Part 2

We had a great day filming with Springwatch and were blessed with wonderful weather.  You can see the results at 7pm on BBC2 on Boxing Day, and if you miss that it will be repeated at 3.15 pm BBC2 on New Year’s Eve.

The feature is about mistletoe and the damage it does to apple trees despite its importance as a wildlife habitat.

There was no shortage of mistletoe in the traditional orchard at West Bradley, unfortunately, as is the case in so many of our Somerset orchards.  Neil was eager to get at some of it with his pole saw and Kate was happy to get her hands sticky with the berries.

The crew, from Bristol, were charming, and included Scott Tibbles, son of the great wildlife cameraman Maurice Tibbles, and a great wildlife cameraman in his own right.

It will be a short piece in a review of the year, but we will all be glued to our screens!

BBC Springwatch Christmas Special

Kate Humble

We are delighted to reveal that a small part of the Springwatch Christmas Special will be filmed at West Bradley Orchards.  Kate Humble and her crew will be spending a day with us towards the end of November to film a piece on mistletoe.  

Yes.  Mistletoe!  Seasonal it may be, and an important habitat for several species including mistlethrushes and blackcaps, but we have mixed feelings about it.

Although we are pleased to say there is not a trace of mistletoe in our commercial plantings it does cause us problems in the traditional orchard.  If you don’t keep a serious eye on it it can get away from you and rampage through the trees, eventually killing them.

The only solution is to remove the entire branch, right back to the trunk. Cutting out just the plant only makes the problem worse.

Happily for the BBC there is no shortage of mistletoe at West Bradley and we hope they will be able to capture some of the mistlethrushes in flight.  Not many birds are attracted to the white berries so they are a reliable food source throughout the winter for those birds that do know about them.

Other creatures for whom mistletoe is an important habitat include the rare and endangered Mistletoe Marble Moth.

We hope we will be able to get across our message about the importance of managing traditional orchards properly for both diversity and productivity.

The programme will be broadcast in the Christmas schedules.

Orchard Groundforce celebrates 100th orchard!

Neil Macdonald & Andrew Longman

This week we added the orchard at Snagg Farm, Ditcheat, farmed by Andrew and Brian Longman, to the list of traditional orchards in our care.  When we checked we realised that this brings the current total to 100!

Neil Macdonald, director of Orchard Groundforce, said 

“We are proud to look after more than 13% of the traditional orchards in Somerset.  

In some cases this means harvesting the apples but we also provide a full service, pruning and managing the trees throughout the year.  Andrew’s orchard is just the sort we like, with good access and quality fruit” 

Snagg Farm has been in the Longman family for over 100 years.  The orchard consists of 4 acres of traditional cider apple trees with about 140 trees, producing around 30 tons of fruit. 

Andrew Longman points out the very tree under which his grandfather was standing when, as a young child, he heard the siren sound out from Evercreech, just a few miles down the road, to signal the end of the First World War.  The date was 11 November 1918.

“I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the orchard" he says. "I think everyone is a bit more wise now to their responsibility to look after what’s around them and I’d like to leave more when I go than when I got here.” 

Pick-Your-Own weekends at West Bradley Orchards

West Bradley Orchards, the home of Orchard Groundforce and Orchard Pig, will be open for PYO apples and pears on the first four weekends of September, Friday - Sunday, 10.00 - 5.00.

We have lots of unusual and rare varieties including Charles Ross, Kidd’s Orange, Ashmead’s Kernel and Orleans Reinette as well as the usual Bramley and Cox.

Join us on Sat 10 and Sun 11 September only for our famous Apple Scrumping Days!  You can make your own apple juice from the apples you pick - a blend of your choice or a single variety.

We provide tuition, equipment and bottles; you just have to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.  You can even make your own labels. Take home your own personal apple juice and amaze your friends!

NACM/Bulmer’s Open Orcharding Day 12 July

The immaculate surroundings of Bulmer’s Hockhams Farm at Martley, Worcestershire were the location for this year’s Open Orchard Day, sponsored by the NACM.

Over 200 growers were invited to the 540 acre site, as well as suppliers of equipment and machinery to the industry. 

Chris Fairs, Growers’ Advisory Manager, led a walking tour around the orchards during which guest speakers made short presentations at designated stops.  

Topics included a summary of new varieties planted at Hockhams, removing fruit from young tree leaders to maintain shape, summer pruning techniques and the use of gypsum in orchards. 

The machinery on show introduced growers to equipment designed to improve growing and harvesting techniques and everyone was treated to a picnic lunch accompanied by cider.

Neil Macdonald from Orchard Groundforce said “This is an essential event for growers.  It’s a great opportunity to network and to find out the latest thinking in the industry.  We came away with a lot of food for thought.”

One of the topics we found most interesting was that on summer pruning.  Chris Fairs gave a presentation on summer pruning in Fiona and Gilly trees, two of the new varieties planted at Hockhams Farm.

With 450 acres planted at the farm, producing 10% of the total Bulmer’s crop, some of the trees just do not get pruned in the winter, plus the fact that they grow so fast they sometimes need to be pruned twice.

Hereford soils are richer than ours here in Somerset, nevertheless this year we have seen some fantastic extension growth on our young trees.

On the whole we still feel that we are talking about winter pruning and summer shaping.  What you prune in summer is not going to regrow. What you prune in the winter is structural and is going to encourage new growth in the spring. But if you need to cut off the end of a branch - not recommended in the winter - you can do that in the summer because the sap has stopped rising.

And if you have only one or two trees in your garden, cider or dessert, and you have a branch that consistently gets in your way when you are mowing the lawn then June is a good time to get rid of it. 

Newsflash! John Deere to attend Open Farm Sunday

We have just had some great news!  John Deere, the world's leading manufacturer of farm equipment and one of the main sponsors of Open Farm Sunday, will be attending our event on June 12 and bringing some of their famous green and yellow machinery.


Needless to say we are absolutely delighted to be able to show some of the best boys toys in the world! We look forward to all the oohs and aahs from our guests on the day.


Open Farm Sunday is on 12 June 2011.  West Bradley Orchards and our neighbour Lower Farm will be open for this free event from 10.00 - 4.00.


West Bradley Orchards, West Bradley, Somerset BA6 8LT. 01458 851222

Natural England - Traditional Orchards in England

Thursday 5 May saw the publication of a huge report by Natural England and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species into the state of England’s traditional orchards. This lengthy undertaking has identified over 35,000 individual orchards, covering nearly 17,000 hectares, and has assessed their condition.


Somerset, with 2741 orchards identified covering some 1687 hectares comes second only to Herefordshire, with 3360 orchards covering 2481 hectares. But whereas 14% of Herefordshire’s orchards are assessed as in ‘poor’ condition, here in Somerset the figure rises to 61%, which is absolutely shocking.


A traditional orchard is a man-made thing - we choose the varieties, we plant the trees in straight lines, we graze it with livestock, we hedge it around to keep the stock in, and we harvest and make use of the fruit. Here in Somerset that means not just our five-a-day, it means our cider and our apple juice, a growing, wealth-providing local industry.


Apple trees are early senescing hardwoods. After about 80 years they are at the end of their lives, but prior to that they are a wonderful habitat for wildlife, and at the end of that time they become even richer, providing homes and food for insects and birds.


However we must also remember that we need to produce food, and that there is only 3% of the world’s surface that can be used to grow it. As our population grows we have to consider how we are going to meet that need. Our orchards can improve biodiversity at the same time as increasing food production.


People tend to look at neglected trees and see them as beyond recovery. But we can take an orchard, with careful management, from a state of complete neglect to a place where it is not only breaking even but is commercially profitable due to the growth of artisan cider and apple juice makers in Somerset.


This process of orchard restoration is not only beneficial to the longevity of the orchard, it also improves the wildlife habitat. Now we have been made fully aware of the scale of the problem with our orchards urgent action is required.


We can make a big difference but the project has to be led by commercial need and the appetite of the public for artisan produced premium cider and apple juice from our traditional orchards. There is the opportunity to do it and a definite market for the product. For the project to have meaning and sustainability there needs to be regular care. Apple sales, which finance restoration and secure future management, are the key.


Orchards can have ten times the biodiversity of a grass field, ten times! They are man-made things that we actually got right for a change! Let’s give life back to them and make them part of our economy and our landscape, and our future, not just our past.

Open Farm Sunday at West Bradley Orchards

David Cotton, left, and Neil Macdonald, with two of David's calves

Orchard Groundforce and Bridge Farm, neighbours in West Bradley, Somerset, are joining forces for this year’s Open Farm Sunday.

Open Farm Sunday, a free event, is to be held on June 12 this year. It is an opportunity to visit local farms and find out what happens on them. This will be the sixth Open Farm Sunday and over 450 farms across the country are expected to open to the public. 

Neil Macdonald, from Orchard Groundforce, said 

“We have 58 acres of apples, pears and walnuts here at West Bradley.  We will be running tours around the orchards and answering questions about everything we do here.” 

“The Orchard Pig Gloucester Old Spot piglets will also be here to welcome visitors, and there will be food for the hungry and drinks for the thirsty.”

Bridge Farm, adjacent to West Bradley Orchards, is a dairy farm run by David Cotton, chairman of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers.

“We’re a family farm. I’m the fourth generation and we farm 600 acres with 160 milking cows, over 300 young stock around the farm and lots of calves.”

“Many people see farmers working, but they don’t have an opportunity to get beyond the farm gates to see what happens, so this is a chance for people to find out what farmers do on a daily basis.  They can ask questions and see behind the scenes.”

“All our milk is sold through the Co-op Milk Link.  It goes down to Wiseman’s at Bridgewater and is sold through the supermarkets, so if people are buying locally produced West Country milk there’s a chance that it comes from us.”

“On Open Farm Sunday there will be calves for people to see, and beef animals that we are rearing for the food chain, plus some of our machinery for people interested in equipment.”

“We also have some lovely footpaths that go right through the middle of the farm.  We grow wheat here as well and there’s an opportunity to take a circular walk that brings you back to West Bradley.”

Visitors should come to West Bradley Orchards, BA6 8LT, where there will be free parking.  Both farms will be open 10.00 - 4.00.

West Bradley is between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, 2 miles off the A361/A37

Wedding Belle

April seems to have zipped by.  We were racing to finish all our pruning at the beginning of the month, then we were racing to get all the new trees planted, plus a large new orchard for a client; now we are worrying because of the drought and the impact it may be having on all the baby trees.  And in the middle of all this we opened the orchards here at West Bradley to the public for our annual Apple Blossom Day event, close on the heels of the big Royal Wedding day.

Usually we worry that the blossom won't have appeared in time for Apple Blossom Day.  This year we worried that, with spring arriving so early, it would all have DISappeared!  The cider trees were in full blossom however, looking wonderful, and the pigs have a lovely new home under the oaks.

Open Farm Sunday workshop at West Bradley Orchards

On March 16 Orchard Ground Force hosted a local workshop for prospective participants in this year’s Open Farm Sunday.

In 2011 the event will take place on Sunday June 12.  Having participated in it ourselves we are keen supporters - the day is attended nationally by even more people than go to the Glastonbury Festival - and that means something round here!

Organised by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) the event has some heavyweight sponsors from industry and a huge amount of support and resource is available to anyone interested in taking part.

Here at Orchard Ground Force we feel really strongly about the importance of the on-farm learning experience.  Making the connection between people and their environment, between the public and the food they eat, has never been more important.

The workshop at West Bradley was given by our regional representative Jeremy Padfield and Annabel Shackelton from LEAF Head Office.  They brought with them samples of the posters, signage, leaflets, hosting and publicity information available from LEAF and discussed on-the-day activities, publicity opportunities and Health & Safety issues with an eager group.

We’ll be putting on our own event for Open Farm Sunday - more news about it in the next newsletter - and we invite you all to West Bradley Orchards on 12 June.  Please come and meet us!

For more about Open Farm Sunday do visit the website HERE and think about registering for the event.

Case study - a pollarded orchard

Owners often ask us how long it takes to turn round a problem orchard and to start seeing a profit from it.  Here is a typical example.

Nick Case farms organically at Bridgehampton in Somerset.  Three years ago he acquired an orchard, six acres planted in the traditional style, which had been pollarded by its previous owner.

“My heart sank” says Neil Macdonald “because I am only too aware of how detrimental that can be to the yield and longevity of the trees. What can happen when you pollard trees is that big sections of them can start to die back because they have come to a stop end.  Over a few years these sections will die back into the trunk and start killing the tree."

"Unless you prune these lumps right back to the trunk where they can heal so that the flow can keep moving, and you can redistribute the energy back to where you want it to be, back into fruit growth and health, the tree may never recover."

"Another problem with pollarded trees is that the tree produces a whole lot of shoots which in turn produce a dense impenetrable mass of leaves, but no fruit."

Orchard Ground Force took on the job of restoring the orchard and over the last three years has brought it back to life, pruning the new growth, redistributing the energy and bringing the trees back to health, as well as planting new trees to fill in empty spaces.

“For the first couple of years I was in negative balance,” says Nick, “but this year we have broken even, so next year we should be in the black.”

Last year the orchard yielded twelve tons of cider apples, up from ten the year before.  This year Neil Macdonald reckons he will harvest well over that, giving Nick a healthy pay cheque.

“In just three years” says Neil “it’s gone from investment to payback and the future is only upward.” 

“You have to do some shock treatment to begin with. Then there will be a little bit of pruning from time to time - just enough to keep the trees in tip top condition - and the orchard will continue to produce well for years to come, making Nick very good money, even from old trees.”

Scions

One of our major tasks this year will be grafting.  We experimented last year with grafting scions - slips of first year growth - on to mature trees.  We chose scions of Red Windsor variety and they were grafted very successfully on to mature Cox trees. 

As a variety Cox is losing its attraction to both growers and the public and top-grafting is a way of making use of the valuable root growth that the tree already has but changing the fruit variety it produces.  Red Windsor grafts on to Cox trees will produce Red Windsor apples.

The grafts are called "scions".  January is the ideal time to harvest scion wood, when the wood is at its most dormant. We look for young active one year growth of our chosen variety and we want the base of it to be about pencil thickness with plenty of leaf bud on the scion.

The grafts will be slipped under the outer bark of a branch and bound in.  All the grafts we made experimentally last year have taken and this year we will be extending the work.

Scions are quite valuable things.  We need about 600 scions to do the grafting we have planned. Last year, when we bought in the scions, it cost us about £11.50 per tree to do it, including labour. By harvesting our own scion wood this year we can probably reduce that by around £4.50 per tree, so quite an important saving.