Got any apples spare? Our branches are bare (From Evesham Journal)
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Got any apples spare? Our branches are bare
1:30pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News
Snowshill Manor head gardener Linda Roberts is asking people to donate their apples for a fruit festival after this year’s wet summer wiped out the crop.
STAFF at Snowshill Manor are ap-peeling for people to donate spare apples for a popular family event.
Fruit is needed to replenish stocks for the annual Apple Weekend, held on Saturday, October 13, and Sunday, October 14, at the National Trust house, near Broadway.
Part of the reason for the shortage is that bee numbers of have been hit by the wet and cold weather earlier this year, which has affected their ability to pollinate the fruit.
In previous years there has been up to 500 different varieties on display over the weekend along with freshly pressed apple juice.
But Linda Roberts, head gardener at the manor, said that with the bad weather this year, numbers will be significantly less than usual.
“It’s absolutely rubbish,”
she said. “I’ve been in gardening all my working life and I’ve never known a year as bad as this. We’ve got a huge variety of different apples but three quarters of the orchards have got nothing on them.
“We’re very desperate this year. I just need apples – they don’t have to be 100 per cent perfect to go through the press, as long as they are not damaged.”
Apples have not been the only crop to be affected by the weather this year.
Evesham asparagus and Pershore plums were both badly hit by the rainy and cold British summer, causing a headache for festival organisers in both towns.
Some asparagus festival events were cancelled because of a lack of gras and Pershore Plum Festival was launched with a distinct lack of the famous purple fruit.
Meanwhile, the Fleece Inn at Bretforton is gearing up for its Apple and Ale Festival on Saturday, October 20.
Sadie Hughes, events coordinator, said that they had not been so affected by the bad crop as other places because they had apples from last year.
“One of the main draws is real ales and ciders,”
she said. “We make much of our own cider, which has been made from apples from last year.”
