The London Orchard Festival was wonderful, despite the rain.
There was a fabulous display of apples, complete with tasting notes and the chance to buy a bag to take away. Juicing, story-telling and fire-making! kept the young orchardists busy, as did the famous longest peel competition.
The frittata, veggie burgers, cake, buns and cider on sale were all delicious, not to mention the chance to sample many freshly juiced apple varieties.
Best of all, my first ever attempt at chutney-making won second prize in the "Chutney Challenge" - the carrot and apple chutney was made with some of the small cooking apples from the Roots to Fruit orchard on the Jack Dunning Estate.
You can see more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelondonorchardproject/sets/72157636681182776/
This coming Sunday is the London Orchard
Festival!
Last year's festival was brilliant, with all sorts of fruit-related activities. This year's looks great too!
For more information see: http://thelondonorchardproject.wordpress.com
Orchardist’s Question
time will be a panel discussion based on Radio 4’s popular
‘Gardener’s Question time’ and everyone is invited to participate with fruit-related questions! There's a great line-up on the panel, with experts from all areas of orchard
knowledge, including:
·
Dr Poppy Lakeman Fraser (OPAL & Imperial College) –
orchard biodiversity and
lichens
·
Steve Oram (PTES) – orchard
biodiversity
·
Russel Miller – (Tree Muskateers) – Arboriculturalist and
all round tree man
·
Peter May – orchard expert and co-author of ‘Apples and
Orchards in Sussex’
·
Andy Howard – heritage fruit tree
expert
·
…and our very own Lewis McNeill – organic fruit growing and
holistic orchard enthusiast
They are asking people to email questions in advance. Or you can have one read out on your behalf
if you can’t make it to the festival.
Please email
questions to lewis@thelondonorchardproject.org.
Chutney Championship – you can bring a sample of your chutney (or jam for the jam
category) and enter the competition!
I'm going to take along my homemade apple curd - made with apples from my friend Nuria's tree.
Samples will be judged by French chef Jean Jacques, with extra points for ingredients being local,
foraged, and organic.
There was a fabulous display of apples, complete with tasting notes and the chance to buy a bag to take away. Juicing, story-telling and fire-making! kept the young orchardists busy, as did the famous longest peel competition. 
