Past Activities...

Apple Day 15th October 2011

We had an excellent selection of apples to sell and for the first time, due to the super crop of pears this year, we were able to offer culinary varieties to the public.We were at new venue this year and this change proved to be a successful choice. We had the full support of the Rivers House at The Leventhorpe School on Cambridge Road and the main assembly hall was an excellent venue.We were joined by local Fruid Id expert Peter Laws who was able to secure for our displays the full Hertfordshire and Essex apple collections from the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale. As a collection point for apple identification, this section had a constant queue of people who brought along apple samples for identification.The students of The Leventhorpe School also got involved in apple based competitions in the lead up to the day and their display was most entertaining.

We also had some of our own juice on sale again this year made from our own Laxton’s and other juicing varieties. The juice was delicious and exceptional value at £2.00 a bottle. People were able to taste all the varieties of apples to help the find their own particular favourite. The children had great fun trying to get the longest strip of apple peel and other apple based competitions.

For the first time we also had a super display of illustrations by the children of High Wych Primary School. The school have researched their links with the Rivers family and the children based their illustrations on May Rivers originals. The display will still be available to view at their school in the coming months.

We are grateful to all our regular supporters and new helpers who made the Annual Rivers Apple Day such a great success.

We do still have a few bottles of apple juice left, if you live near Sawbridgeworth use the 'contact us' form to secure your bottle.
 
Kate Yarnold
Chairman

Community Apple Picking Day Sunday 2nd Oct 2011

This was our most hectic apple picking day to date. We had over 100 people turn up which was fantastic. The weather had been breaking all sunshine and temperature records all week so it was guaranteed to be a good day. The sun shone throughout and families picnicked and had to retreat to the shade in the most bizarre weather for October.
Although our crop had been halved by earlier frosts we managed to pick a huge amount of apples, some we have sent out for juicing the rest we shall be selling at our Apple Day in the new venue this year; The Leventhorpe School 15th Oct 12 noon – 3.00pm
We managed to pick a good variety of apples both cookers and eaters and left some for the wildlife. I would like to thank all the core group of volunteers who helped organise the day and also thank all you pickers who came out and made it a lovely morning, picking a record number of Apples

Kate Yarnold
Chairman

Blossom Breakfast Sunday 1st May 2011

On Sunday 1st of May 2011, in addition to our monthly orchard maintenance activities we staged a May Day Special Blossom Breakfast.
An area of long grass was cleared and we invited all regular orchard walkers and their pets to join us for a cooked breakfast served with fruits juices cereals, croissants and coffee. Gazebos were needed to protect the food from the sun rather than to keep out wind and rain so we were exceptionally lucky with the weather and all those who joined us, enjoyed the experience. Local people told us about Rivers fruit trees in their gardens and the event concluded with a short illustrated talk ( PowerPoint powered by petrol generator !) about the importance and historic elements of the nursery orchard site.
Special thanks to all our volunteers who in addition to normal workload helped to make this day a great success.

Maintenance Day Sunday 7th November 2010

A very productive day! We had a long list of tasks that could be undertaken on Sunday and thanks to a great turn out by the volunteers we had a very successful days work. We are always grateful to the regular volunteers, some joining us from London and we thank them for their efforts, but it is always nice to welcome new volunteers and it was good to welcome Rachel and David who joined us for the first time and we hope to see them back soon.
We had one party working on clearing the ditch which runs down the side of the Orchard and they did a sterling job getting at least two thirds of the way along.
Another party were pruning/sawing out dead wood from some of the trees opening them up ready for next year. This will regenerate the trees allowing for strong growth next year.
There was a wood moving party who transported plenty of wood over to our Wassail site from all corners of the Orchard in preparation for our Wassail evening on 15th Jan 2011. This task was greatly helped by our trolley, which took the pressure rather than our backs and arms.
It was a lovely day in the Orchard, the sun was out and we were sheltered from the wind. Thank you very much to everyone who turned out to help.

Kate Yarnold - Chairman