Annabel Rutherford invites Palmers Green residents to get involved with Broomfield Park Apple Day
The community orchard in Broomfield Park is charming and feels as if I have stepped into a Kate Greenaway illustration.
A lot of thought has clearly gone into creating this space. Situated on the park’s former upper bowling green, the orchard is beautifully laid out in a wildflower meadow, with two diagonal avenues of apple trees, dwarf step-overs and espaliers along the sides. A particularly nice feature is an apple tree (a Herefordshire Beefing) encircled by a wooden tree seat; another is a group of beehives. Aside from the slight hum of traffic from Alderman’s Hill, the orchard could be in the countryside.
The orchard owes its existence to David March, co-chair of the Friends of Broomfield Park, who I have arranged to meet and talk about the orchard’s Apple Day event. In 2009, he spotted an opportunity in a neglected patch of land and approached Enfield Council with the idea of creating an orchard. Fourteen years and a lot of hard work by volunteers later and the orchard is well established – it looks as if it has always been part of the landscape. There are 47 different varieties of apples grown at the orchard, plus quince, pear, medlar and mulberry.
One of the books that David read when planning the orchard was The Community Orchards Handbook published by Common Ground, an environmental charity. According to David, “Common Ground were pioneers of the concept of ‘local distinctiveness’, creating and saving community orchards”. They also came up with the idea of holding apple days, a popular annual celebration which highlights the heritage of apples and their importance in our culture and community.
The handbook charts how, since 1900, the United Kingdom has lost most of its orchards, grubbed up to make way for housing and arable farming. As a result, many apple and other fruit trees unique to certain parts of the country have disappeared, along with the distinctive landscape created by orchards and their biodiversity.
There are other consequences; knowledge about fruit growing is no longer commonplace, communities do not come together to harvest locally grown food, and orchard customs such as wassailing are harder to keep alive.
Apple days are a chance for people to reconnect with part of our horticultural history and give growers an opportunity to showcase some of the thousands of varieties grown in the UK. Sadly, most of us only ever taste the limited range of apples in supermarkets because many simply do not store and travel well.
This year’s Broomfield Park Apple Day at the orchard takes place on Sunday, 17th September between 1pm and 5pm and promises to be a lot of fun. Apples will be juiced and many different varieties will be available to taste. There’ll also be live music, refreshments and home baking, and pots of the orchard’s honey for sale.
For those who enjoy apple day, Broomfield Wassail will take place in January – when we’ll wake up the trees after the winter, thank them for last year’s harvest and drive away evil spirits!
For more information about Broomfield Park Apple Day:
Visit fobp.uk/-apple-day
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