Due to the snowy conditions making access difficult, the session due to take place at the Glyme Valley Reserve on January 7th has been postponed until the 14th.
Apple Day 2025
Apple Day, held at the Community Orchard, on 28th September, was a great success. Importantly, following a period of showery days the weather remained dry, with some pleasantly warm sunshine. A large number of visitors of all ages enjoyed watching and helping with the juicing of apples, some from orchard trees and some brought by people from their own trees.
Helping with the apple juicing
The Charlbury and Finstock Morris Dancers entertained and the walking stick maker and the wood carver attracted interest, while children had fun with activities provided for them, including decorating paper cubes prepared by an expert in origami.
As always, the refreshments available, mostly home-made, were in great demand, and the spiced apple juice extremely popular.
This year many of the trees have produced an exceptionally large crop, and whether or not you believe that the rites of wassailing have had their effect, the singing and dancing involved is good fun and the placing of slices of toast on the trees (after soaking in something stronger than water!) is an intriguing ancient tradition which we maintain.
This year both men and women entertained with Morris dancing
Admission to the Apple Day festival is free and there is no charge for the refreshments, but donations are requested and this year amounted to around £500, a total as exceptional as the number of apples on the trees; after costs are deducted, a very welcome sum will be left to help with the upkeep of the orchard. As a community orchard, everything produced by the fruit trees, plus the soft fruit, is of course free to pick when ripe.
See you next year!
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Upcoming Saturday work sessions
We realise that there may be people who would like to join Green Gym or at least try it out, but cannot attend on a Wednesday, typically for work reasons. We are therefore trialling monthly work sessions on a Saturday (generally the first in the month), from 10 a.m. to 1 pm, with a break at 11.30. These are included in the relevant bi-monthly programme.
The next session will take place on Saturday February 7th, at the Community Orchard, with Heather as leader. Details of work planned will be posted here as they become available.
For further general information on Saturday sessions, click here.
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Putting the elms back in Elmsfield
Since its appearance in the U.K. in the late 1960s, the now infamous Dutch elm disease has killed millions of elm trees here over the last 50 years. It has changed parts of our landscape forever and is still spreading north. However, thanks to the painstaking breeding of hybrids, there now exist varieties with noted similarity to the lost English elms (ulmus procera) but which are, it is claimed, completely resistant to the disease.
Although there still exist surviving mature elm trees in Britain, they have all vanished from Chipping Norton, and are remembered only in the local name Elmsfield. Now, Green Gym have planted a small number of elm saplings alongside the drive to Elmsfield Farm, which also leads to the Community Orchard. It is hoped that at some time in the future, they will resemble those in this photograph and recreate a glorious scene from the past.
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Blossom Day 2025
The annual Blossom Day festival will take place on Sunday May 11th, from 12 to 3, at the Chipping Norton Community Orchard. Admission is free and all are welcome. Parking space is limited – please come on foot if at all possible. For details on how to get there, parking, and a map of the location, see here.
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