Queen’s Orchard Annual Harvest Day

After a pandemic pause in 2020, the Queen’s Orchard held its annual harvest day on 5th September this year. Warm, sunny weather and the friendly orchard volunteers welcomed more than 300 eager visitors through the gate, there to make donations that help buy seeds, plants and equipment for the year to come. Herb posies, lavender bags and homemade cakes were on offer, alongside orchard produce including onions, blackberries, apples and rhubarb. Beautiful cards featuring photos of the orchard taken by volunteers were popular, as was the “guess the weight of the pumpkin” competition, especially with younger visitors (this year’s specimen came in at a very respectable 7 kilos). At the end of the day the hard work of the volunteers and Alex Andrews from Gavin Jones had been rewarded by the kind words and generous donations of the visitors, many of them first-timers who were as delighted with the Queen’s Orchard as the gardening team and regular visitors are.

The orchard is now closed for winter, reopening in spring 2022, with the volunteers keeping an eye on things during the