North East orchard groups

To find community orchards local to you, see our community orchard map

• Northern Fruit Group Formed in 1995, The Northern Fruit Group is a membership based group of individuals interested in the growing of fruit. Ability ranges from amateur gardeners interested in fruit but having little knowledge through to professional fruit growers. Membership of the group exceeds 300.The group holds regular meetings at RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Harrogate with talks given by invited speakers. A newsletter is published four times a year. There is at least one visit each year to a garden, orchard or commercial fruit farm. The Group is developing teaching and demonstration gardens in the Walled Garden at Harewood House, near Leeds; on allotments at Dewhurst Road, Huddersfield and in Hexthorpe, Doncaster. The group ethos is one of sharing practical skills; members are encouraged to come along and take part in the practical days held at the various garden sites.A number of Workshops are held including summer and winter pruning, bench grafting and budding.The group also produces a number of leaflets, which include:-
  Suggested Cultivars for the North details the cultivars that members grow and some obervations on their performance.

• Fruitful Durham Fruitful Durham is a not-for-profit social enterprise (CIC) providing social and environmental benefits, through the medium of fruit.Core activities:  Delivering advice and education around fruit tree production, preserving fruit, orchard planning and care;
  Producing hand made juice/jam using local fruit that often might have otherwise have gone to waste/ is ‘surplus’ and
  Growing sustainably locally grown fruit trees.

 

Where to buy trees in the North East

• Fruits of the Forage – A sustainable preserves company that gathers heritage fruits that would otherwise go to waste from abandoned orchards and hedgerows across the UK. By combining these fruits with wild plants they capture a unique taste of the British landscape.
  Fruits of the Forage want to give back to the British landscape, enriching the environment for wildlife and future generations. If you are a landowner who cares for the land you can help their project. Fruits of the Forage will donate trees including Damsons, traditional plum, apple, pear and wild plants such as elderberry to be planted in hedgerows and small scale orchards. All they ask in return is permission to pick any surplus fruit.
  If you would like to get involved in this project please email bert@fruitsoftheforage.co.uk

 

Orchard services and produce in North East

Seamer Fayre Scarborough – Hedge-Hoggers Apple Juice And Cider. Bring us your apples and we will turn them into juice or cider. All we ask is a percentage of your juice in return. Hedgehoggers is a community press based in Seamer, on the outskirts of Scarborough.

From the original idea of planting a small orchard to replace many fruit trees disappearing all over the country, we realised that there were actually still hundreds of trees in local gardens producing a glut of fruit which went to waste every year.