Did you see the apple trees in the orchard wrapped in plastic recently? It wasn't an art installation it was us trying to protect the trees from being eaten by those pesky rabbits. The team did a great job giving each one a wire cage although the damage was significant on one or two trees and we might lose them. Fingers crossed.
Some more additions to the apple varieties in Brightwell. Tom Debney kindly dug 6 holes in a glorious orchard in the heart of the village. The orchard can be found on maps dating back to the 1700s. Paul Chilton is the quality controller for the holes!
Described by the growers Frank P Matthews in Worcestershire, Queen of the Realm™ is a very exciting apple, released to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022. It has a unique appearance of a beautiful purple blushed skin with white undertones, resembling HM The Queen’s resplendent purple robes. The lenticles are prominent giving a slightly freckled appearance. The flesh is white, crunchy, crisp and juicy with sweet, aromatic flavours. Eats beautifully when picked straight from the tree in mid September, or can be stored for a couple of months.
The village celebrated a new apple season with a traditional Wassail. Evil spirits were driven away from the trees with gunfire, Robins, the good spirits of the orchards, were tempted to feed in the orchard with bread dipped in cider and hung on branches, the trees were woken up from their winter sleep by beating their trunks and feeding their roots with cider, and everyone celebrated with lambswool, a warmed drink of cider and cooked apple. As each year, the Armaleggan dancers were the highlight of the festivities.
Have a look at Andrew Trythall's fabulous photos of the day
One new variety added to the village this winter is Paradice Gold. In 2012 it was chosen by the Paralympic Legacy as a new apple to be planted in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
We have chosen this variety to celebrate the success of our own rowing Paralympian, Frankie Allen. She won gold in the Paris Paralympics in 2024 and at just 22 is already a 3 times World Champion in the PR3 Mix4 (far right in the photo).
The new trees have arrived. Last year the Orchard Group gave 15 apple and pears trees to villagers who wanted to add to the heritage varieties already in the village. The project was so successful we decided to do it again!
The trees are bare root from Frank P Matthews of Worcestershire
who have been growing trees since 1901. The trees have been "heeled
in" in Paul's garden ready for planting in the new year.
With these trees we now have 108 different varieties of apple in the village!
What an extraordinary day! Apple Day was a huge success and clearly visitors were having a really good time. A group cycled from Reading in the early rain, and we had over 400 visitors from as far away as High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Reading and Oxford as well as all our local villages. We even had a slot on Radio Oxford.
The sun shone for our tours of the Community Orchard, cider and apple tasting, juice pressing and cakes. The star attraction was Paul Chilton’s display of 108 heritage varieties of apple. Make sure you come next year!
We'd like to thank our fine food friends who were selling their delicious food and drink. Pickles Produce make pasteurised apple and pear juice using fruit from their very old orchard in local Harwell. Womersley brought their small batch award-winning fruit and herb vinegars, the most popular being their stand out cider vinegar.
Jessie's Coffee Truck provided barista coffee to go with all the apple cakes and bakes. Thank goodness!
