Forest Fields Orchard Project is a small, informal and currently unfunded project, founded by a few residents of Forest Fields. It started as an idea – “let’s plant 100 fruit trees in people’s gardens” – and has become an exciting reality. This blog is here to tell the story of how we get on, and to provide information for those taking part. We’ve answered a few questions about the project here – if you have more questions, email us at forestfieldsorchard [at] gmail [dot] com.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
It doesn’t make sense for apples and pears and plums to be grown on the other side of the world and shipped all the way here when we can grow them in our own back yards. The gardens of England used to be full of fruit trees, and there’s no reason why they can’t be again; and what better place to start than in our own back-yards?
Climate change is happening now, and we know that we need to cut the carbon emissions caused by the way we live our lives. The production and transport of the food we buy plays a big part in the carbon emissions which are causing climate change. It’s also clear that oil will one day run out – indeed, many experts believe that the ‘peak’ of oil production has already been reached, making it increasingly expensive in years to come. Without cheap oil, food production – and just about everything else in our lives – will have to become less energy intensive, more local, and more imaginative. Planting our own fruit trees, now, is just one way of making the transition away from our reliance on cheap oil.
But we’re mainly doing this because we love fresh fruit from our own gardens; we love apple pies, and plum crumble, and freshly pressed fruit juice, and pears picked straight from the tree. We love the sight and smell of fruit-tree blossom in the spring. And we like the idea that by getting together with other people to plant these trees, and to share the fruit in years to come, we can get to know our neighbours a little bit more.
WHAT’S ‘TRANSITION’?
We’ve been directly inspired by the ‘Transition Towns’ movement, and this project is loosely allied with Transition Nottingham.
The Transition Towns movement is based on the idea that not only do we need to cut carbon emissions dramatically to reduce the impact of climate change, but that we will have to cut them anyway as oil becomes more and more expensive and, eventually, runs out. The implications of doing without cheap oil – for food production, transport, house-building, heating, clothing, consumer goods – are massive, and it could take decades to successfully make the change (the ‘transition’) from the way we live now to the way we will need to live in the future.
Transition Towns are communities across the world who are taking on this challenge right now – thinking about how it could best be achieved, and taking practical steps towards it.
You can find out more from Transition Nottingham, or join the Transition Forest Fields group and get involved.
WHY FRUIT TREES?
With a little bit of care and attention, fruit trees can be the easiest – and most long-term -way of getting into growing your own food. If given a good start in life, a fruit tree can keep producing delicious and healthy (and emissions-free) food for decades. Of course, there are plenty of other crops you can grow, even in the very small gardens of Forest Fields (and the Forest Fields Gardening Club is a great place to go for advice about that – see ‘links’ page for more details), but we just like our apples. And plums. And pears…
WHY FOREST FIELDS?
It’s where we live. Everything has to start with where you live. (For anyone reading this from further afield, Forest Fields is a neighbourhood of Victorian terraced streets, just to the north of Nottingham city centre. The houses are mostly on the small side, and the gardens – where they are gardens, and not yards – are even smaller. It’s not the obvious place to begin community food production. But when you live somewhere with a name like ‘Forest Fields’ it’s hard not to think about trees. And fields.) We hope that other groups in other parts of Nottingham, and in other cities, will take inspiration from our project. But we start with where we are.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE FRUIT?
It will be eaten. For the first few years, it’s unlikely that anyone will get more fruit from their tree than they and their family can eat within a few days of harvesting it. After that, if people begin to get more than they can handle, we’ll start swapping recipes and storage tips (if kept properly, apples in particular will store for months: and we’ve chosen varieties which keep well). And we’ll also get together with other local food projects to collect and redistribute any fruit which people tell us they can’t use. But it will all be eaten!
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
Post questions in the comments below, or email us via forestfieldsorchard [at] gmail [dot] com
We’ll try and answer them as soon as we can..
