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Originally Posted by honeybee Will you go to Battersea?
As for orchards and old fruit varieties I think it's really sad that we've pretty much lost a lot of them. I'm hoping to do some orchard survey work ( and hunt the noble chafer beetle which loves rotting fruit wood)and you can get books to identify them or you can send the fruit away to be checked. We've lost so many orchards but some villages are even named after local fruit trees specific to that area. You can't get a decent apple in the supermarket and sometimes the ones we buy are up to a year old and have been kept in cold storage. I like russets fresh off the tree or Cox's or Worcester's (growing in grandparents garden). There's some lovely orchards around here and although it's nice the wildlife is left alone some of them are neglected too much. |
We are lucky to have an orchard around here too, Home Farm in Iver, Buckinghamshire. It is a pick your own farm with 13 varieties of apple as well as pear and plum trees, vegetables and soft fruit. I love taking the kids there (although they should weigh us on the way in and the way out. lol). Every year they have an apple festival which is great fun.
As for the dog, we have a local branch of the Dogs Trust and my next door neighbour works there so she is keeping an eye out for the type of pooch we have in mind.
