A fabulous local food festival in Ledbury’s High Street will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Ledbury Market House’s role as the centre piece of the Town and its market place.
Stalls will line the High Street with a feast of locally produced food and drink from the Three Counties to savour there or to take home. Continue reading “A Great Ledbury Celebration! Sunday 9th July”
The magic of pollination has happened and we have a myriad of insects to thank and above all think about. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male anthers to the female stigma which is essential to kick start cell division and set the fruit. Poor pollination leads to poor fruit set and yield and misshaped fruits, neither good news! Continue reading “Pollination At Castle Fruit Farm”
Once Upon A Tree craft cider producers in Ledbury in Herefordshire are delighted to announce the long awaited release of their new, entirely natural, wild yeast fermented, sparkling cider.
Once Upon A Tree is supporting the work of the International Centre for Birds of Prey (ICBP) based in Newent, Gloucestershire, by donating 25 pence per bottle to go towards their work in Little Owl conservation.
Continue reading “Wild cider takes flight with The International Centre for Birds of Prey”
Michael Bentley has long been involved in Farmers Overseas Action Group which is a charity for agricultural development and other projects in Uganda. This interest was sparked by 2 years in India as a young graduate volunteer with the Quakers. Trained as a soil and water engineer his particular passion is sustainable farming practices in the tropics which increase yields by paying careful attention to water management and soil structure, one of the fundamentals of what is now known as Conservation Agriculture or Climate Smart Agriculture. Continue reading “Conservation Agriculture at Castle Fruit Farm”
Sunday 9th July 2017 – a date for your diary
Our own annual Ledbury food and drink festival on the last day of the Ledbury Poetry Festival becomes part of the “Great Ledbury Celebration” this year and moves to Ledbury’s historic High Street market place to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the iconic Market House in a birthday treat of food, drink, music, poetry and heritage.
Arrangements for the event are bringing together organisations across Ledbury to put together a very special day, including Ledbury Town Council, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Ledbury Food Group, the Friends of the Master’s House, the Youth Council, the Ledbury Fringe, local businesses, traders and performers. Continue reading “The Great Ledbury Celebration – food, drink, music, poetry and heritage”
Buds are breaking on the Valor plum trees and hurrah, the blackthorn is in full blossom so the pollinators can get to work. These are our free workers so we try to make sure pollen is available early on by planting goat willow and keeping some of the hedges uncut for their early blossom. More on the importance of biodiversity later as what is more pressing is organising our 2017 harvest workers. Like all farmers we rely on seasonal labour to harvest our crops. In our case this means a group of Bulgarians who come every year for 3-5 months. Continue reading “Who is going to harvest our fruit this year?”
“Winter work? Surely there is nothing to do now it’s winter” How that makes our farm manager Clive laugh !
One of the foremost things on our minds is tree planting. Orchards are being continually renewed, driven by age, unprofitability and the never ending desire of consumers for the new. It is a necessary and huge commitment in every way not just financial. Other tasks at this time of the year include pruning, machinery maintenance, coppicing, logging, ditching, hedge cutting and planning labour for next season. On wet days catching up on research findings and never ending paperwork deserves a blog on its own ! Continue reading “Winter Work at Castle Fruit Farm”
