April 26th
Tree Sponsors' Orchard Day

May 3rd, 4th and 5th
Cropsharers' Spring Weekend

August 2nd and 3rd
Cropsharers' Summer Weekend

October 4th
Fruitsharers' Orchard Day

October 11th and 12th
Autumn Cropsharers' Weekend and
Big Apple Harvest Weekend

October 25th & 26th
Flavours of Herefordshire Food Festival
at Hereford Racecourse

October/November
Dragon Orchard open for Cropshare collection

“English orchards, with their profusion of native apple, plum and pear varieties, are becoming more and more rare. They just don’t pay - apples are cheaper from abroad - so many farmers simply cannot afford to keep their orchards; they need the land for more profitable crops. The Stanier family at Dragon Orchard faced a stark choice - stop growing apples altogether or find some way of making money from them. They came up with a novel idea - crop-sharing. For an annual fee, a family can become part of Dragon Orchard, visiting four times a year to see what is going on at the farm (and, depending on the season, this can include wassailing, blossom time, harvesting or cider-making). At the end of each season they will receive a share of the orchard’s bounty -boxes of apples of numerous varieties, pears, bottled juice, cider and jams. It is a great way to explore the life cycle of a working orchard and you will be saving a traditional English orchard from being grubbed up and lost forever”.

RICK STEIN