Heartwood

[Arob]

Excellent news.  For the knives i've tried allsorts and now tend to use shatterproof bi-metal stanley blades in folding knives.  I also find there's a fair bit of variety in the woods, MM106 is good as it's fairly buttery smooth, whereas plums are frequently quite fibrous, only really an issue when cutting the tongues.

 

A while back i started working on building a collection of varieties, we've had nothing but support from the good people at Brogdale, as i'd like to ensure we have a decent genetic resource in this region.  In time i'd like to see us able to produce some rootstocks too, but things take time.  There's a decent network developing up here, with some great community orchards, one of them is based in the grounds of a primary school i was struck when listening to the (then) Headteacher give a presentation at a Fruit on the Tyne conference, i'd been expecting her to talk about how it fitted into the curriculum, the kids using it for numeracy, science classes etc.  Instead, what she said was, the best thing about it was it's affect on the kids mental health; and that's in a fairly affluent, old, leafy village in the Tyne Valley, not a deprived part of town.

 

If you want to keep an eye on us, here's a link to our project's website.

[Mark2]

Thanks Arob lots of good info there! It’s really heartening to know there’s people out there tredding the same path and for the same reasons.

At the tail end of my working life it’s important to me to pass on my skills. And very satisfying! Must have had about 100 people come along for the day long workshops. I love the thought of all the trees they will be confidently pruning.

on any one day we can have farmers wanting info on cider orchard manigment, small garden groups/orchards or bush, espelier ect always good fun. We do have a few good venues but would love a permanent base complete with lots of trees. We’re trying to arrive at a fair price for the day, so as to plough a lot back in, to make the project grow !

[Arob]

I've been teaching myself to pleach this last week, i reckon something like this might be quite satisfying, a very good thing to retire into, perhaps?.

[Mark2]

Always good to practice what we pleach !

Grafting, growing named fruit trees to sell at markets would be very enjoyable. Just think of the networking that could be done over a market stall !