Fruit-saving scheme is biggest in country

A SCHEME to gather unwanted fruit from gardens and orchards across the district is the largest of its kind in the country.

Sustainability charity, Transition Stratford, which runs the scheme, revealed the success in saving fruit from rotting away in its annual report. Just over three tonnes was picked by volunteers during the scheme which ran from August to the end of October last year.

A tonne was given out free to local care homes and children’s groups and the remaining two tonnes was turned into apple juice and a variety of preserves, with the bulk of the processing being undertaken by the scheme’s industrial partner, Harvest of Arden, a fruit processing company based in Snitterfield.

The addition of Anne Hathaway's Cottage orchard to the scheme proved particularly fruitful, said Harvest Share organiser Roger Matthews.

He said: "Thanks to the generous co-operation of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, we were able to harvest there every Saturday and we collected just under 1.5 tonnes of fruit from the orchard.

"Another 14 gardens and small orchards provided the rest of the fruit."

A total of 70 people gave up a combined 700 hours - harvesting, storing and sorting the fruit or delivering to care homes and children’s groups in Stratford.

A grant from Stratford Town Trust helped with the purchase of equipment and with the cost of hiring premises for storage and sorting.

Plans are already afoot to make this year's scheme even more successful as volunteers will be collecting fruit at Mary Arden’s Farm and Nash’s House as well as at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.

"This will add about 100 trees to the number harvested," Mr Matthews continued.

"So weather permitting we are looking forward to an even bigger harvest this year!"

Organisers will be sharing the success of last year's scheme at two public meetings on Sunday (January 22) at 2pm and on Wednesday (February 1) at 7.30pm, at the Lifeways centre, on Albany Road - whose orchard was one of the contributors to Harvest Share.

For more information about Harvest Share contact Transition Stratford on 01789 298503 or admin@transitionstratford.com.

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