Common Ground Boughing Out? Message from Sue Clifford

[Ann Smith]

This will be Common Ground's last year of promoting Apple Day. As it reaches its 21st anniversary on October 21st we feel it the appropriate time to leave it in the good hands of everyone who has worked to help to make it successful locally and continue to work to establish it as a calendar custom. We have had a few offers, would welcome more and would like to spend some time thinking about the best way to create a future for the national Apple Day Events List after 2010. The Community Orchards Directory is out of date every day now - so much is happening. We have much information we have not been able to put on the Common Ground website and many Community Orchards are arising spontaneously. But we do feel that as comprehensive as possible a gazetteer helps others to be in touch with nearby activities, strengthening the weave. We have striven to nourish many strands so that the loss of one or two, or changing fortunes, or 'shifting fashions' in funding, or powerful interests do not bring down the good work that so many of you are doing. We wanted to create a weft and warp well enough woven by different interests, large and small, local, regional and national, professional and amateur, community and agency to develop its own robustness to keep on going. We have worked to pass many orchard batons to many people, and novel ones have arisen.

There are a variety of initiatives we shall continue to support for example Learning through Landscapes and Garden Organic - Fruit Full Schools project - to create school orchards which will run over the next 4 years starting with secondary and moving onto primary schools, broadening the number of school orchards manyfold.

Any thoughts on how we can give the Apple Day Events List and aspects of the Orchards Gazetteer a life after this autumn would be most welcome. Please drop us a line to office@commonground.org.uk
Common Ground, +44(0)1747 850820
http://www.england-in-particular.info local distinctiveness
http://www.commonground.org.uk archive, arts and Apple Day
Sue Clifford & Angela King, founded National Apple Day and Community Orchards (thanks also to Kate O'Farrell)