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.”
