Jesmond Community Orchard welcomed visitors to its annual Apple Day at St Andrew’s Cemetery earlier this month, celebrating local fruit growing while highlighting the challenges facing traditional orchards.

The orchard, a staple of South Jesmond since 2009, hosted an afternoon on Saturday, October 10th of apple pressing, home-baked cakes, musical performances and fruit displays. This year’s celebrations also welcomed new additions, including the Jesmond Ice Cream Company and a representative from the Northern Fruit Group.

More than a decade and a half after the orchard was established, its family-friendly event remains an important part of the local community. “The reason Apple Day is so important is to celebrate the apple harvest and to fulfil our objective to be a demonstration project,” said Fiona Clarke, a committee member of Jesmond Community Orchard. “We show people how to cultivate orchard fruit organically, to bring people together, and to provide an attractive open space for the local community.”

Jesmond Community Orchard is one of several community orchards in the region that collaborate to inform the public, provide educational resources and share horticultural expertise. Together, they cultivate unique varieties, growing fruit that is largely unavailable in commercial shops.

However, Clarke said community initiatives like Jesmond’s play an “increasingly critical role” against a backdrop of severe national decline. According to The Guardian, 80% of small orchards in England and Wales have been lost since 1900. The report stated that the north of England especially faced “dramatic losses… where declines of about 80% have been found”. In addition to historic land losses, changing weather patterns present new challenges and opportunities for rural orchards.

Clarke said climate change has significantly affected orchard survival, though the effects are not entirely negative; orchards across the country are now able to cultivate fruit varieties that previously could not survive in the British climate.

The event attracted a diverse crowd of families, local residents and university students. Despite this, some attendees said the event had a few “small hurdles” that needed overcoming.

“While the event was fun and it was nice seeing people from all different walks of life, my main problem with the event was that it was cash-only,” said Madison Kendall, a third-year university student at Newcastle. “Students rarely ever use cash normally. It felt slightly shameful to not be able to support the orchard enough despite knowing it’s such a worthy cause.”

In response, Clarke explained that the organisers did not take card payments because it was difficult to get a signal in the orchard. Their treasurer had tried in the past, and “it proved incredibly frustrating”.

The event concluded with organisers expressing gratitude to the neighbourhood for its continued dedication to preserving Jesmond’s local environment.

To find out more about Jesmond Community Orchard, visit its website here.