Welcome to our community orchard, for food, flowers and nature!

​Our orchard was planted by volunteers in April 2022 with heritage apples (cookers and desert), cherry, plum, damson, cob (hazel) and mulberry. It will provide spring blossom (important for insects) and a great variety of free food for our community. We announce on our social media channels when fruit is ready to pick and operate on a 'take what you want, leave what you can' philosophy. 

Desert apples:

• Coul Blush

Our local and most northerly variety! Raised by Sir George Mackenzie, Coul, Ross-shire, Scotland. It first fruited in 1827. Fruits have fine, soft flesh which is slightly sweet and slightly subacid (ref).

• Early Julyan/Tam Montgomery

Thought to have originated in Scotland. It was known before 1800. Fruits have crisp flesh with an acid flavour (ref).

• Discovery

Raised in about 1949. Fruits have firm, fine-textured, juicy flesh with a fairly sweet and pleasant flavour (ref).

• James Grieve

​Raised by James Grieve in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was first recorded in 1893. Fruits have rather soft but very juicy flesh with a good refreshing flavour (ref)

• Katy/Katja

Raised in 1947 at Balsgard Fruit Breeding Institute, Sweden. It was introduced in 1966. Fruits are crisp and juicy with a pleasant flavour ((ref)

• Red Falstaff

​Raised in 1966 at East Malling Research Station, Kent. Fruits are crisp and juicy with a very good flavour (ref).

Cooking apples:

• The Beauty of Moray

Originated from Scotland. It was recorded in 1883. Fruits have crisp, white flesh with an acid flavour (ref).

• Arthur Turner

​Raised by Charles Turner at Slough, Bucks., and introduced by him in 1915. A large cooking apple with somewhat tough skin. Well known for its particularly attractive blossom (ref).

• Bramley

A large, flattish cooking apple, green in appearance but sometimes with specks of red. The flesh is white, juicy and acidic and when boiled it turns into a frothy pulp making it what many consider the best cooking apple of all (ref).

• Howgate Wonder

​Raised in 1915-16 on the Isle of Wight. Apples have firm, fine-textured, juicy flesh which is quite sweet when ripe with a faint aromatic flavour. Cooks well (ref)

Cherries:

• ​Lapins/Cherokee

​The fruit  is regarded as very high quality. It turns deep red well before it is ready to pick and unlike some varieties it is sweet while still red. It is a late-season cherry (ref) 

• Morello

Also know as sour cherries, are smaller than sweet cherries, with darker skin and a bitter, sour taste. They’re used mainly in cooking, particularly for pies, jams and tarts. They ripen later than sweet cherries, usually in July (ref).

Plums/Damsons:

• Opal (plum)

A medium-sized fruit with mottled skin and golden or yellow flesh. These plums mature over a few weeks. Considered by many to be the best early plum variety (ref).

• ​Victoria (plum)

​Found in a garden at Alderton, Sussex.1840. Fruits have medium firm, moderately juicy flesh with a little sweet and a little rich flavour.

• Merryweather (damson)

​Raised at Merryweather's nurseries, Southwell, Nottinghamshire and introduced in 1907. Fruits have firm flesh with a true damson flavour. Pick in late September (ref).

Nuts:

• Webb's Prize Cop (Cobnut/hazel)

​A heavy bearing variety that produces large clusters of gorgeously sweet nuts. Perfect for eating green or allowing to ripen fully.

Berries:

• Wellington (mulberry)

​It is a deciduous, round-headed, medium sized tree with a low spreading canopy and heart-shaped leaves that turn a wonderful yellow in autumn. It produces oval, dark purple and red edible fruit in late summer.