News

Many thanks to shoppers at Otley Waitrose who have raised £386 to support managment work in the orchard. 

It is much appreciated and very useful!

Thanks to everyone who ignored the weather on Sunday morning and decided to come to Apple Day. The reward was a lovely, and unexpectedly, sunny afternoon.

We hope you enjoyed your visit to the orchard. A number of people commented how much the trees have developed in recent years. So far we have harvested 597Kg of apples this year. I think we are likely to equal or exceed last year's harvest of 689Kg but 2013 wil remain the record at 867Kg. 

You can view the orchard harvesting record here

If you want some apples - the varieties we have will all store for two or more months - please get in touch. We do not have suitable storage so we want them to go to good homes now to ensure minimum wastage. We are open to ideas about distribution, but we are suggesting mixed boxes of 5 or 10 Kg, for £10 or £20 respectively. 

The Keswick Codlin (a cooker) need using now so happy to supply these at a reduced rate. You can puree and freeze, or make fruit leather, or jam, or jelly, or pies, or cakes.....

pip pip

Apple Day is nearly here.

It will be held at Bowling Park Community Orchard on Sunday 16th October from midday until 4pm.

We will be pressing apples to make fresh juice. Please bring along your spare apples to add to the press.

There will be horticultural advice and a chance to buy apples from the orchard and jams and chutneys made from our fruit.

Bring your friends and family to join in with the games, activities and enjoy a variety of fruity cakes and treats.

Sovereign Health Care Charitable Trust have given funding to Bradford Apple Group to support practical management of the orchard. 

This grant, directed towards BEES as managers of the orchard, first supported some of the summer work; restrictive pruning of the cordons and espaliers, mulching the trees to control the vegetation growth and mowing the paths through the grass. 

Have a look at the conservation volunteer page to see where the task programme will take us over the next couple of months. 

Unlucky for some!

Sorry, we have had to cancel Friday's trip to St Ives. We will go in June instead.

Sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment. 

The second Shaping Spaces programme starts on Wednesday 13th April.

It is a 12 week course for 16-25 year olds and runs on Wednesday and Thursdays, 10am-3.30pm.

During the course participants will learn practical horticultural and conservation skills as well as having an opportunity to work on personal goals such as confidence building, working with others and CV writing. 

The sessions will be a mix of indoor at Culture Fusion and outdoor at community and wildlife settings in Bradford.

We are planting near Roper Lane, Queensbury this Friday.

We will be on a hillside so make sure you have supportive footwear. 

The new task programme will be ready soon  - keep an eye on the volunteer programme page as dates are confirmed. 

September sees the 30th anniversary of BEES delivering environmental education activities in Bradford.

We will kick off our celebration with cake at BEES Urban Nature Reserve on Tuesday 15th September 2.30-4.30pm. 

We will also aknowledge the landmark achievement at the Orchard on Friday 18th September. We have our conservation task there that day so drop in at any time between 11am and 3pm, though best bet for cake would be lunch time.