The poet Xan Oku (active on Twitter/X) says that flowers remind us why the rain is necessary. On our Blossom Day celebration we had plenty of both, but about 25 people turned out to enjoy the orchard. It is beautiful, whatever the weather. We made artwork using thumbprints for the blossom, and enjoyed the music. The blossom may not have outdone the dramatic clouds above the orchard, but the benefit is that there is still blossom to see. If you have any photos please send them in, we love to see them.
Other news – we think the swifts are back! If you see them please drop us a comment saying the date and time of your sighting.
As I write this I can see the plum trees are coming into blossom in my garden, and the petals are already falling from the little Fuji cherry, ‘Ko Jo No Mai’. We expect so much from this short-lived spectacle, we go in search of it and celebrate its beauty every year. Blossom has been associated with all things feminine, partly because of associations with spring and with the romance of flowers. John Ruskin, Victorian artist and critic, described the women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings as ‘girl-blossoms’. In our orchard, however, the blossom can be enjoyed by everyone. The Woodland Trust has put together a calendar of the blossom times of various trees that you’ll spot in British countryside, orchards and hedgerows. The crab apples usually flower before the domestic apples, and by early May we should have quite a few trees in their best blossom dresses.
Save the date for our Blossom Day We will be in the orchard from 2pm to 4pm. Our folk musician friends, who usually play at our Wassail, will be here in (hopefully) warmer weather to entertain our visitors, and the trees. Last year’s blossom-themed finger-painting activity was so popular we are running it again. We are hoping to provide blossom cakes and treats as well. More details to follow, so keep an eye on this website and our social media feeds.
The word wassail comes from the Norse and old English traditional drinking salute; ‘Was hael’ meaning ‘good health’. The response is ‘Drinc hael!’ or ‘I drink to your health’ – in other words, ‘Cheers’!
Did you wassail? It is the most fashionable outdoor activity this winter, with wassail events taking place across the country, in rural, urban and community orchards of all sizes. What makes this revival so marvellous is that you can wassail any way you like, picking and choosing from a rag-bag of traditions that make the most sense for your orchard and its community.
I have researched and written about wassailing, but there is a lot that we can’t be sure about. Wassailing is a folk custom that can be traced back, in its original form of a drinking toast, to Anglo Saxon times. It became more ritualised from the twelfth century to the sixteenth, and then went through a period where it was not so important, until the Victorians rediscovered it. Although some Victorian commentators (and some modern ones) love to see wassailing as a living remnant of ancient ‘pagan’ rituals, there is no evidence of this. However there are possible connections between the wassail and ancient forms of tree worship.
Whenever and wherever it started, Wassailing has always taken place between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night, (using either the Old or New calendar dates, according to local preference). The wassail as a way of sharing a drink became a way of celebrating the end of the twelve days of Christmas. During the Victorian era, the wassail was a folk ritual that was celebrated in prose and image more often than it took place on the ground, but it was certainly a living Christmas custom down in the orchards.
Today you can celebrate as we do at Trumpington with mummers, musicians and a lot of singing and dancing. We sing ‘here we come a wassailing’ and we pour apple juice as an offering to each tree. We also hang toast in the branches – toast was put at the bottom of drinking goblets to act as a sort of a filter, and this is where the expression ‘raising a toast’ comes from. Orchards with more space might consider lighting a bonfire, or putting candles at the base of each tree (safety first) but I think the custom of firing shotguns has probably had its day!
We will be holding our annual Wassail on Sunday 14th January from 2pm. The Lord of Misrule will lead a celebration of our apple trees and the orchard. In centuries past, wassailing was a way of asking the trees to produce as many apples as they could. Now, I think it is more of a community celebration, and a moment to think about and celebrate the wider landscape and environment. Whatever you have in mind when you attend, it is a lot of fun and certainly not solemn. Children are very welcome, and we encourage you to dress for the occasion. Cider used to be a big part of wassailing but now we provide mulled apple juice in return for a donation.
Practical details: – please park with consideration to our neighbours in this residential area. please wear outdoor clothing and waterproof shoes. It is a good idea to bring a torch as it gets dark so early. Please remember we have no toilet facilities on site or nearby.
In September 2023, on a particularly hot day, this lovely group of Heineken Volunteers from the Star Pub came to make the orchard look tidy again. If you can, like me, remember advertising slogans from many years ago, my headline makes more sense. We are very grateful for all their hard work and community spirit. Our orchard depends on the dedication and support of volunteers, and we can never thank them enough.
(Health-and-safety note: it’s not a good idea to lean on your scythe blade, even wearing gloves. They are so sharp!)
We will be holding a Blossom Day celebration in the orchard on Sunday 30 April 2023, between 2pm and 4pm. As well as an opportunity to enjoy the blossom, there will be guided tours around the orchard, introducing visitors to the swift tower, the beehive and the stool bed where we are propagating rootstocks. Bring a picnic and enjoy the orchard with us.
Orchard Blossom Day was an event launched a couple of years ago by the UK Orchard Network, but of course fruit tree blossom has been celebrated for centuries, and by some very famous artists including those shown below – Millais, Van Gogh and David Hockney. Why not take some photos or bring your sketchbook (digital or paper) and make the most of this fleeting beauty? We would love to share your images of the orchard here.
Apple Blossoms or Spring. 1858-59. Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-96). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, WirralDavid Hockney, from the exhibtion The Arrival of Spring, Normandy 2020, Royal Academy 2021. Vincent Van Gogh, The White Orchard, Arles, 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Bugs and Swifts for the Heritage Open Days Sunday 18 September 2022 14:00 – 16:00
Take a tour around our small plant-filled oasis designed to enhance the community and promote biodiversity and educate people about fruit production, wildflower meadows and conservation.
Innovation is not just technology, but the integration of sustainable food production with biodiversity and conservation is an innovative approach to a new way of living to minimize consumerism and maximize a positive environmental impact.
The visit will highlight how the community orchard and wildflower meadow contribute to biodiversity, illustrated by the bugs found. In addition the swift tower and observational beehive illustrate the possible contribution to conservation as both swifts and bees have been in decline (sadly this year swifts have been added to the red list, emphasizing the urgent need for action).
Trumpington Community Orchard illustrates how nature needs to be the central consideration in all INNOVATIVE community planning.
Juvenile swifts
No booking required, just turn up. Please park considerately in this residential area. The event is free but we rely on donations to keep the orchard going.
We took the hard decision not to hold a wassail (a traditional ceremony to honour the apple trees) this year. I know other orchards held large and enthusiastic wassails, but our space is small and we have to think about the potential risks.
But never fear, our Maintenance Session volunteers saw to it that the trees received their usual blessing of a libation of apple juice poured at their roots, and pieces of toast hung in the branches. When we started this orchard over a decade ago, our first wassail was three of the founders (including me) singing some kind of song and banging a saucepan, and a few neighbours came out to see what the racket was. Since then the wassail grew into a really sizeable and popular event, and we have had everything from lantern processions to a wheelbarrow orchestra to folk dressed as Green Men and Women, and as penguins. In the last few years wassailing has been re-discovered, re-invented and revived across the country (I think we were way ahead of the trend.) Wassailing is certainly a tradition of this orchard, and it will carry on, in some way or another, every year.
Our Open Cambridge event on Saturday 11 September was a great success. Susanna, who is one of our founder members, said, ‘Saturday went really well with sunshine and lots of happy families joining us at the orchard for the bug hunt and plant potting. Tristan did a stoic job leading the bug hunt and showing people how to use a key to help identify the ” beasties”. There were magnificent spiders , grass hoppers and a couple of fat crickets and every one had a fantastic time. Rosa was in charge of greeting our guests and selling apple juice as well as collecting donations. I led the potting up session with a selection of strawberries, sage and rosemary that I’d set up a few weeks ago from runners or cuttings from my allotment. Everyone took at least one plant home with instructions of how to care for them. One enterprising child found a rosemary beetle and then potted up some rosemary to take home so that she could keep the beetle as a pet ( with parental consent of course!) Chris has been busy again making a shelter at the entrance to the orchard (prompted by us getting soaked on Friday evening when we went down to set up the notice board). He has also painted the sign on the gate and re-varnished the wood so our kissing gate looks beautiful. Dave has not had a chance to put bees into the observation hive this year but a colony has moved in anyway.’
Our new shelter – thanks Chris!Bees doing their own thing, as they usually do, in the observation hive.
On Saturday 11th September 2021 from 2 – 4pm in the orchard, we will be searching for as many bugs and minibeasts as we can find. All creatures, once examined and recorded, will be carefully returned to where we found them.
Come along and see what you can find. No experience necessary, and no knowledge of bugs required.
Last time we did this, we found a lot of bugs!
This event is part of Open Cambridge It is a free event, but donations to keep our orchard going are much appreciated.