I was going to go along the historical line and trace what happened over the thousands of years since then but in looking up details I came across this place in Kent and I’d never heard of it before and it sounds wonderful.Brogdale Farm is near Faversham in Kent. It has the largest collection of temperate fruit in one place in the world. Row upon row of fruit trees and grape vines make up its treasure trove of over 4,000 fruit varieties. It is, in essence, the UK’s largest orchard.
Brogdale Farm
The collection is owned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is part of an international programme to protect plant genetic resources for the future. The University of Reading is responsible for the curation and maintenance of the UK’s National Fruit Collection (NFC) in collaboration with the Fruit Advisory Services Team (FAST), who are based at the Farm. Public access is organised by Brogdale Collections, who manage public access and provide guided tours and run various events throughout the year.They reckon to have near to 3,500 fruit trees and say that with around 2,100 varieties of apple tree, the spring time blossom display is worth a visit alone. But there is so much more to the Nation Fruit Collection. Its mandate is to safeguard the future of each and every one of its trees and vines. The genetic resources housed within the NFC are fundamental to researching how we can adapt fruit crops to our changing environment, or select varieties that will grow well as our seasons and climatic conditions change.They ask why should you visit Brogdale and the National Fruit Collection? And answer that question thus:‘As well as being a stunning sight to behold, you can taste many different varieties of fruit and even taste the exceptional apple juice that is produced from the harvest. Visitors can get their unfamiliar fruit varieties identified.
What’s more, you’ll be better acquainted with an establishment that has contributed immensely to the development of global fruit growing knowledge.... Since the NFC was established it has conserved the 4,000 cultivars and distributed them to research organisations all over the world, as well as supporting many local fruit groups and orchards to identify fruit varieties and obtain scions for rare cultivars.By visiting, you’ll also be supporting the Brogdale Collections, which relies on visitors to the NFC and the festivals and events and on charitable funding. The best time to visit Brogdale Collections is during one of its events such as the Apple, Cider or Cherry Festivals, where you can taste and buy hundreds of varieties and tour the NFC, or Hanami Festival for spring blossom. But whenever you go, be sure to join the daily guided tour of the extensive orchards. See the website for more information.’Here is an example of one of the Tours on offer:
Blossom Tours
Dates: 28, 29 March, 18, 19, 25, 26 April
Times: 11.30pm and 2pm
Brogdale blossom time
"The blossom tours will take you on a journey around the collections, discovering the seasonal highlights and peak blossom areas of the orchards. Ideal for the curious to learn about the National Fruit Collection or for aspiring photographers to grab those perfect shots of the blossom."Thanks to Julie in Australia for suggesting the following poem.After Apple-Picking
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep. Robert Frost
Thanks for reading, Terry Q. Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook