Category Archives: Orchard

Fruitfields 2022 pre-apple blossom update

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The cherry and pear blossom is in full bloom at Fruitfields and beautiful. We’ve already enjoyed the apricot, greengage and early willow catkins and blackthorn blossom.

Our Fruitfields honeybees have been bringing in the pollen from these different trees and shrubs, which varies in colour as they transport it in their ‘paniers’ back to our Fruitfields beehives. We have started our Fruitfields bee experiences this year and are now fully booked through to the end of the year. We do love introducing people to our Fruitfields honeybees.

We have ‘blossom walks’ and open afternoons taking place on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th May. All are welcome and we will be selling our cider, apple juice and honey from our orchard. There is no parking but it is an excellent walk or cycle from the canal or Upper Bittell reservoir.

Over the last 3 months we have pruned the whole of our plot closest to the reservoir. As a result we hope to have given these trees the best chance of a bumper fruit crop. We’ll see!

 

Winter & Spring 2021 at Fruitfields

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We have had a proper Winter with good amounts of snow. Due to the Global Covid Pandemic we have not been able to host our annual Wassail in conjunction with Barnt Green Parish Council or progress our Fruitfields stall at any Farmer’s markets or events. All retail outlets have been closed through to April in line with Government guidelines.

However, positively, the local community have been extremely supportive of our direct delivery of apple juice & honey on Fridays and as the restrictions ease, events are to recommence externally from May 17th and normality should resume from the 21st June (but we will see!).

We managed to prune all our trees from January – March and all but one of our beehive colonies survived the winter. We have re-planted replacement trees where they have succumbed to deer and rabbit damage. We are now enjoying the first of the 2021 blossom and have made a start splitting our beehive colonies and on our ‘bee experiences’ which are proving popular.

We look forward to the summer and seeing the effects of the pollination of the blossom and the fruit buds coming on.

 

2020 at Fruitfields

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What a year it has been at Fruitfields! Despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic, Brexit, the American election and more we are not just surviving but thriving due to focusing on our bees and trees and the support of our apple juice & honey stockists and everyone who has bought our products.

Throughout the Spring and Summer we tended to our fruit trees and beehives. We are pleased to have doubled the number of honeybee hives we have and our fruit trees are starting to establish themselves. We caught a couple of honeybee swarms at the end of May and one of these stocks has become quite prolific with a strong laying queen. We cross fingers they over winter well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During mid-summer we took advantage of the season, and were able to carry out a great amount of work in the orchard soon after sunrise. We have always thought it a stunning location with the combination of the North Worcestershire Countryside and Upper Bittell Reservoir adding to the surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been able to develop some nucleus bees from splitting our existing beehive colonies to help prevent swarming and to grow the number of colonies we have. It has been good to pass on beekeeping skills and introduce members of the public to our honeybees via our beekeeping experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From August on-wards we have been extremely busy with the harvest. Starting with the extraction of our Fruitfields honey in August before apple picking throughout late August, September and October. Having picked the apples we then wash, mill and press the fruit before bottling and pasteurising the apple juice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are part of an amazing local community. Apple pickers included friends and colleagues, the Barnt Green Girl Guides and many families, individuals and members of the network of villages which we form a part.

We used the facilities at Tardebigge Cider in order to scale up our position to process the 5 tonnes of apples collected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also invested in bottles fillers and our own mill and hydropress which give us the ability to process smaller runs of apple juice such as a limited number of pink juice using a single variety called ‘Red Devil’. From our harvest this year we are delighted as a business to now be offering the following products:

A medium sweet apple juice (Made from Browns & Dabinett)

A medium sharp apple juice (Made from Bramley, Sandlin Duchess & Ashmeads Kernel)

A single variety Ashmeads Kernel apple juice

A single variety Red Devil apple juice

Honey in both 1 lb and 8 oz jars and either liquid or soft set. All these products are subject to availability!

Our winter wassail in conjunction with Barnt Green Parish Council

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On the 27th December, 2019, two community walks set out from the centre of Barnt Green at Millenium Park. The first walking group undertaking the 5 mile round trip comprised 42 adventurers and the 3 mile route was made up of 50. With approximately thirty people coming to our orchards directly or on their own walks, a crowd of c.130 made for a wonderful 3rd Barnt Green Wassail.

It was the first year we had members of Alvechurch Morris dancing on the top track and we were again able to process round the trees with Jez on the drums and Andy on the melodium. We were also joined by Steve as green man, aka ‘the hedge’. He really is a sight to behold, (if you notice he is there).

As the sunset and the mist came in, the crackling bonfire lit up our Fruitfields stall and Sian and myself were busy running the Wassail and dishing out the hot & cold apple juice & hot & cold cider.

We hit pots and pans and made noise as we processed around the orchard. We enjoyed a few wassailing verses and as well as hanging toast on our trees with the help of children (to attract the robins the guardians of the orchards and the noise was to keep away evil nasties) we ‘toasted’ with a ‘wassail’ and ‘drink hael’ response.

We wished the health of the apple trees for another bumper harvest in 2020 and to thank them for their bounteous crop we’ve experienced in 2019.

Thanks to Barnt Green Parish Council for their help leading the walks and promoting the event. It seems to be building each year and this year was certainly bigger & better than previous years…

Love and joy come to you and to you your wassail to… Here’s to a great start to 2020!

We must thank James Crockford (James Crockford Photography) for capturing some great shots of this event:

 

Summer & Autumn at Fruitfields

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It has been a fun summer tending to the trees and making sure they are well staked. We continue to check that our growing apples are bug and disease free and that our bees have the best possible chance to develop and be strong enough to gather nectar to make honey.

High winds and gales and our lack of thinning the apples have meant for a couple of broken apple tree limbs but this has provided a lessen for thinning apples in oncoming years.

Highlights of the summer have included running beekeeping experiences and being up close and personal with the bees. This has been sooo much fun and it is great to introduce new people to the life and setup of the honeybee.

Our apple varieties are coming on now. We have had small crops of Redditch Doddin & Pitmaston Pineapple as earlies and the Worcester Pearmains, William Crumps and other varieties such as Red Devil, Sandlin Duchess and Ashmead’s Kernel are on the way.

 

Storms before the calm? March 2019 in the UK

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We’ve had a few weeks now of rain, wind and challenging conditions here in North Worcestershire in the UK. We are hoping this is the ‘storm before the calm’ and all settles down for the main blossom and pollination period in May.

Pictures speak a thousand words and we have at last worked out why our fruity pictures from last season would not upload (pixel size). Therefore we are pleased to share with you some of the pictures from the 2018 harvest and from the last few months. We have been busy pruning the trees, cutting our willow and selling our apple juice and honey through local stockists.

If you want to contact us please look at our facebook site @fruitfieldsjuice

Fruitfields Apple Juice is now available!

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We have had fun this autumn producing c. 150 litres of juice from a few different varieties including Redditch Doddin, Worcester Pearmain, Sandlin Duchess and Red Devil. Our trees are young and the amount of juice is on an exponential curve so we are expecting at least triple the amount next year…

In order to scale up our position earlier and start our local business ‘Fruitfields’ we have picked just over 2 tonnes of apples from a local orchard in Barnt Green with the help of the Girl Guides and it is now available for sale. Using the facilities at Tardebigge Cider, Tutnall and the huge experience of the owner Steve Cooper, we have produced over 1,500 750 ml bottles of lovely tasting apple juice. It has been a learning curve, with us understanding the logistics of moving c.130 15kg bags of apples through the washing/milling & pulping/cheese pressing/bottling and pasteurising process (before storing & distributing!).

We are delighted to confirm that our Fruitfields Apple Juice is now available for sale at:

Blackwell Convenience Store, Blackwell, B60 1BL

Fresh @Burcot Garden Centre, Burcot, B60 1PW

Warwick’s Butchers, Barnt Green, B45 8NL

Alpaca Park Farm, Snarestone, DE12 7DB

& we are in talks with a few other local establishments…

We have also attended our first shows and have a few more planned. We loved being involved with Barnt Green Fireworks & the Bromsgrove Christmas Lights Switch on & are attending the following events over the next couple of months:

November 22nd   Blackwell School Craft & Local Producer Fair

November 24th    Parkside Centre, Bromsgrove Craft Fair

December 7th       St Andrews School, Barnt Green School Fair

December 8th       King’s Norton Farmer’s Market, King’s Norton

December 15th     Parkside Centre, Bromsgrove Craft Fair

December 27th     The 2nd Barnt Green Wassail at our orchards off Bittel Farm Road

Please do like & follow us on facebook or look us up on Instagram and if you ever fancy a bottle of fresh local apple juice then please do visit one of our stockists or come along to one of the events above. All of the above would not have been possible without the help of numerous family members and close friends. You know who you are, thanks for making our journey possible!

Autumnal Apple & Honey Harvesting

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We’re delighted to have produced some delicious honey. Ok we’re biased but it’s award winning with a first at a Mid-Wales show for our liquid honey, and a third for our set honey in North Worcestershire. All our followers and Fruitfields community are so supportive. If you want any honey and live in the South Birmingham/North Worcestershire area, please let us know.

We have started taking apple windfalls from the Redditch Doddins/Pitmaston Pineapples/Worcester Pearmains/Red Windsors and Red Devils and are processing apple juice. We’ve had the offer of over 2 tonnes of apples from an orchard locally. All being well, we’ll have the apples processed and juice bottled by the end of October and then we’ll let you know when and where we’re selling through to the end of the year.

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Wow, what a summer!

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The trees and fruit bushes are now looking for some rain which no doubt will be upon us imminently. What a summer we’ve had! From the end of May to the start of July the heat wave has given us a such a glorious long dry spell. All the hay has been cut in surrounding fields, and the apple fruit is coming on and thinking about growing and starting to ripen.

Due to the timing of the blossom this year we’ve had no pears, but so far a bumper crop of raspberries and redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries. The raspberry jam has been delicious and our bees are excited by this long dry spell so we’re crossing fingers for a strong honey harvest.

The bees are now pollinating the blackberry and broad bean flowers in nearby fields, and there is the promise of some plums and apricots.

Despite the long dry spell, the growth of the willow each year staggers me and we’ll cut it as usual later in the year once the shoots have shed their leaves.

Our apple trees are starting to put growth into their side lateral branches having pruned their top shoots during the winter period and now our pruning has meant the growth in the trees is impressive. Our five year old fruit trees may produce a crop!

Spring has sprung & the blossom is fun!

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Ok, we’re never going to make proper poets, but we’re tickled with excitement at this time of year with the blossom appearing. There’s the prospect of a crop to look forward to subject to the flowers being pollinated and no heavy frosts…

All of the early fruiting trees such as cherries and pears are blossoming, including the early apple varieties of James Grieve and Red Windsor. We’re now onto the mid-season apple varieties blossoming such as Worcester Pearmain and Red Devil. Our cookers such as Bramley & Edward VII are later, as are the cider trees and other late sweet varieties like Ashmead’s Kernel and William Crump. 

Pollinators such as solitary bees, bumbles and honey bees as well as our natural predators (keep the aphid population down please Mr Ladybird) all appear hard at work!