This years’ National Apple Day, saw the launch of an exciting new community orchard programme “Helping Britain Blossom” which will create and restore over a hundred orchards across the country.
Helping Britain Blossom will be delivered in partnership by HEINEKEN, The Urban Orchard Project and the Bulmer Foundation and will support local people to create and restore 100 community orchards by 2017. Working directly with community groups it will help up to 4,000 people learn new skills and deliver transformational benefit for their communities.
Around 30% of the apples grown in the UK go in to making ciders, around 100,000 tonnes of apples every year from around 10,000 acres of orchards, the vast majority of which are in Herefordshire. Helping Britain Blossom will allow them to share the magic of orchards across the country – bringing communities together to create and restore orchards, develop green spaces and build healthier, happier and more sustainable ways of living.
In the first year Helping Britain Blossom will work at grass roots level in London, Birmingham, Hereford and Edinburgh before expanding in to other urban areas in year two.
You can find out more about Helping Britain Blossom on the website.