Mid and East Antrim get ready to celebrate the 25th annual Apple Day

Alison Diver, Growing Communities Officer, with Riley Bristow, Lacey Campbell and Anamika U Nair

Mid and East Antrim Borough is hosting its first Apple Day celebration this weekend.

The Mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough, Councillor Billy Ashe said: “Apple Day is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the wonderful community orchard at Diamond Jubilee Wood, Whitehead.The orchard was planted in February 2014 and continues to flourish,” he said.

The event, on Saturday 24^th October, will include apple pressing, native apple tastings and cookery, orchard tree conservation and traditional orchard games. Activities are taking place from 12noon-2pm.

It is an important ecological issue as two thirds of UK orchards have been lost since 1960. Orchards have been replanted with cereals, ousted by new developments or simply fade with neglect.

Community orchards, such as the one at Diamond Jubilee Wood, Whitehead, help to revive an interest in fruit growing, provide a way of sharing knowledge and horticultural skills and stimulate us into growing food for ourselves again. Orchards also play a part in raising awareness in the provenance and traceability of food.

Orchards are also important for biodiversity, supporting a wide range of wildlife. The combination of fruit trees, grassland floor, hedgerows, deadwood and associated features such as ponds and streams mean orchards are home to a wide range of insects, birds, mammals and wildflower.

To support such orchards nationally, an annual Apple Day initiative was established in 1990 by the organisation, Common Ground.

This year, Wednesday 21^st October, is the 25^th such annual celebration being both a celebration and a demonstration the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture associated with apple growing.

Sue Clifford from Common Ground who helped devise the concept said: “Apple Day is not a marketing device, its creation has been impelled by altruism and idealism for living better with nature – the apple and the orchard are symbols of hope. They demonstrate how we can have our trees, bees, bats, butterflies, birds and badgers whilst growing good fruit to eat and drink.”