Core Blimey! Ten years of Forty Hall Farm Orchard

Val Dyer from the Forty Hall Farm Orchard volunteers’ group invites readers to help celebrate the orchard's tenth anniversary at its Apple Day on 10th October.

Starting witha blank canvas in July 2012 - digging holes for the first trees planted in Forty Hall Farm Orchard

It started with an invitation to a meeting on 22nd October 2011 about a new community orchard at Forty Hall Farm. A decade later it's amazing to compare old photos from when the field was a blank canvas - with just two trees and an assortment of grazing sheep and pigs - with what we see now - a maturing organic orchard and our own fruit on sale in the farm shop.

In those ten years we've held nine Apple Days and eight Wassail ceremonies; we've hosted school visits and team building sessions for large companies such as John Lewis; we’ve won awards at the Enfield in Bloom competition, and we've had the honour of being selected by the London Urban Orchard Project as one of the London community orchards that have been given the Core Blimey tree, a new variety developed specially for London.

June 2018: See how much the trees have grown!

There's an open invitation to join us in the orchard on our monthly Sunday session, where we gladly talk to visitors about our project, and when asked, give advice on fruit growing. The field being close to the public footpath has advantages, as we often talk to people over the hedge about our activities.

We are pleased to celebrate the fact that many of our current volunteers have been with the project since the beginning and we always welcome new recruits.Apple blossom in Forty Hall Farm Orchard, 2017

Like everyone, we've found the past 18 months difficult and frustrating, so we're very glad that we'll be able to hold our 10th anniversary Apple Day on Sunday 10th October. There'll be apples and juices for sale, demonstrations of apple juicing, tours of the orchard, and much more besides.

Apple day at Forty Hall Farm in 2017

We're pleased to extend a warm welcome to everyone to come and celebrate with us the orchard's anniversary