CROSS O'CLIFF ORCHARD, LINCOLN - 16 OCTOBER 2016

9 volunteers gathered for today’s task – in the rain! Also with us was Richard Borrill, the local volunteer warden. He has been caring for the orchard for the past 20 years!
Undeterred by the soggy conditions we got to work. We tackled a very tall boundary hedge, taking this down to around 6ft. Also there was a lot of elder to be removed so armed with our bowsaws and loppers we were soon chopping these down to ground level. We had hoped to have a bonfire but the weather didn’t allow for one! We still dragged all of the cut material to the bonfire site on the other side of the orchard ready for a rain free day.

The orchard had many interesting local varieties of apples such as Allington Pippin (Allington being a village in Grantham), Blenheim Orange and Lord Burleigh. One picture here shows Medlar which is another old and unusual variety.  Picked whilst still hard, they are then left to ‘blet’ for 3 or so weeks. They become soft and brown and are then ready to eat.
Fortunately the rain eased and by lunchtime it had stopped completely enabling us all to sit in some nice surroundings and sunshine to enjoy our lunch break.
As usual we all felt well satisfied with our day’s work and left site around 3.30pm.
Jonathan