Orchards
()
About this ebook
Read more from Claire Masset
Cottage Gardens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Gardens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Orchards
Titles in the series (100)
The Victorians and Edwardians at Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 1960s Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peat and Peat Cutting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Campaign Medals 1815-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerambulators Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsButtons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The English Seaside in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChocolate: The British Chocolate Industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritain's Working Coast in Victorian and Edwardian Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Gallantry Awards 1855-2000 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scalextric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRailway Posters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tractors: 1880s to 1980s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flying Scotsman: The Train, The Locomotive, The Legend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLondon’s Statues and Monuments Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5VW Camper and Microbus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Campaign Medals 1914-2005 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5London Plaques Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Church Misericords and Bench Ends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building Toys: Bayko and other systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Postcards of the First World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lorries: 1890s to 1970s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Victorians and Edwardians at Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buckles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Poole Pottery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClarice Cliff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden Age of Air Travel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5British Campaign Medals of the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmusement Park Rides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Airfix Kits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
A Biography of English Gardens and Their Flowers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGardening On Chalk And Lime Soil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Amateur Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish Orchards: A Landscape History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of the Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHardy Ornamental Trees and Shrubs - With Chapters on Conifers, Sea-side Planting and Trees for Towns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPublic Garden Management: a Global Perspective: Volume Ii Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Practical Flower Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlora's Empire: British Gardens in India Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The reproduction of seed roses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlmonds: Recipes, History, Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFine Cider: Understanding the world of fine, natural cider Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Compendium of Currant and Gooseberry Growing - Including Information on Propagation, Planting, Pruning, Pests, Varieties Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrankie Flowers Two-Book Bundle: Get Growing and Pot It Up Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Countryman's Journal: Views of Life and Nature from a Maine Coastal Farm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld Checklist of Palms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGarden Rockery - How to Make, Plant and Manage Them Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlora of Tropical East Africa: Aspleniaceae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Biggle Bee Book: A Swarm of Facts on Practical Beekeeping, Carefully Hived Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGardening in Your Nineties: The Sequel to Sex in Your Seventies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings5 Popular Perennial Vegetables: Globe Artichokes, Crosnes, Asparagus, Sunchokes and Rhubarb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSwifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPublic Garden Management: a Global Perspective: Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLongwood Gardens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best of the Barefoot Farmer, Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHouse Gods: Sustainable Buildings and Renegade Builders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Grow Blackcurrants: Growing Guides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Gardening For You
The Complete Medicinal Herbal: A Practical Guide to the Healing Properties of Herbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemy of Herbs - A Beginner's Guide: Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Self-Sufficient Backyard Homestead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Floriography: An Illustrated Guide to the Victorian Language of Flowers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - 10th anniversary edition: A Year of Food Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edible Wild Plants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Indoor Herb Garden: Growing and Harvesting Herbs at Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of Backyard Medicine: The Ultimate Guide to Home-Grown Herbal Remedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green Witch's Garden: Your Complete Guide to Creating and Cultivating a Magical Garden Space Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gardening Hacks: 300+ Time and Money Saving Hacks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Backyard Pharmacy: Growing Medicinal Plants in Your Own Yard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Herbalist's Bible: John Parkinson's Lost Classic Rediscovered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCompanion Planting - The Lazy Gardener's Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Your Own Herbalist: Essential Herbs for Health, Beauty, and Cooking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidwest-The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, Unlock the Secrets of Natural Medicine at Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelf-Sufficiency Handbook: Your Complete Guide to a Self-Sufficient Home, Garden, and Kitchen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs: Your Complete Guide to the Hidden Powers of Herbs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Native American Herbalist Bible: A Handbook of Native American Herbs Usage in Modern Day Life and Recipes for Aliments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBackyard Homesteading: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Self-Sufficiency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Orchards
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Orchards - Claire Masset
magazine.
INTRODUCTION
ORCHARDS ARE, strictly speaking, spaces devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees, but there is much more to them than productivity. They have that irresistible quality of offering both bounty and beauty – while their fruit pleases the palate, their blossom delights the eye. Over the centuries, orchards have inspired great art and poetry and have been the setting for medieval feasts, harvest festivals and, more recently, picnics. Like forests, they are imbued with a sense of magic and mystery, encouraging tranquillity and contemplation and helping us to commune with nature in a profound way. Old orchards are also astonishingly rich habitats, offering food and shelter for over 1,800 species of wildlife, from birds and butterflies to lichens and mosses.
Covering cultural and social history, farming and agricultural practices, pastimes and traditions, flora and fauna, this book is a celebration of all the riches that orchards provide. It traces their history from their appearance in England during the Roman era to their revival over the last twenty years. Nuns and abbots, kings and queens, lords and ladies, cottagers and agricultural workers – all have enjoyed the ‘beneficence’ of orchards. Being the most widely grown fruit in Britain, apples have a key place in this story, but many other orchard fruit are considered, from cherries, plums and pears to hazelnuts, walnuts, quinces and the lesser-known medlar.
Today, after decades of severe decline, the ravages of foreign competition, the appearance of dwarfing rootstocks and intensely farmed bush orchards, and the rise of monoculture, traditional orchards are finally enjoying a renaissance. Regional orchard groups, community orchards and charities such as the National Trust are helping to reclaim a vital part of Britain’s natural and cultural heritage. At sites throughout the country, orchards are being surveyed and restored and new ones planted, while special orchard-related events, such as Apple Day held on 21 October every year, are boosting public awareness towards the plight of local orchards. And in many of Britain’s large urban centres, such as London, Birmingham and Manchester, energetic and passionate city dwellers are joining in the effort to revive orchard fruit growing. Long may it last.
This image from the Opus Ruralium Commodorum (1304–6) by Pietro de Crescenzi shows a labourer picking apples and pears from a medieval orchard. For his work on the Opus, which presented agricultural skills in unprecedented detail, de Crescenzi has been coined the founder of modern agronomy.
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENTS
ALTHOUGH THE CRAB APPLE, Malus sylvestris, is native to Britain, the orchard apple, Malus domestica, is not. Experts have traced it back to a single species of wild apple, Malus sieversii, which still grows in a remote region of Kazakhstan known as Alma-Ata (meaning – fittingly – ‘Father of Apples’). As the region’s nascent civilisation started to cut down forests of apples, pears and cherries in order to cultivate cereals, its people grafted the trees that produced the best fruit and planted them in orchards. From about 5,000 years ago, this type of cultivation, together with grafts and seeds, slowly spread to the Fertile Crescent and eventually into Europe.
There is, however, no evidence that orchards were cultivated in Britain before the arrival of the Romans in AD 43. During the invasion, Roman soldiers were given land as an incentive to stay and on their new plots they planted vines and orchards, as they had done back home. Writing at the same period, the poet Horace described Italy as one vast orchard; the Romans would certainly have known how to propagate and cultivate fruit trees. As they settled in Britain, they brought with them their favourite varieties of apples, cherries and grapes. Pruning hooks have been found at the Roman sites of Darenth and Hartlip in Kent, leading historians to believe that some of the county’s great orchards may have first been planted during the Roman occupation. These did not remain intact for long, however. The end of Roman occupation in AD 410 opened the floodgates for attacks by Jutes, Saxons and Danes. Many of these early battles