{"id":8497,"date":"2020-10-30T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T10:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8497"},"modified":"2020-10-30T11:27:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T10:27:44","slug":"more-apple-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8497","title":{"rendered":"More Apple History"},"content":{"rendered":"

NATURE NOTES<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

More Apple History<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We left last month with apple-growing in Britain at its peak and several thousand varieties available, many of them developed and bred in Britain. Wenvoe had at least 15 orchards in 1900, clearly shown on the Ordnance Survey map. Whilst the odd relict tree may remain hidden away in a garden or farm, the rest have gone and the apples you buy offer very little choice. So how did it come to this? Currently 75% of our apples are imported and there are no signs of this trend being reversed, a trend that actually started a couple of hundred years ago. In the USA Johnny Appleseed had wandered around in the late 18th\/early 19th century planting apples wherever he went and it was not long before countries like America, Canada, South Africa and more recently, China, were producing consistent, good-looking apples that supermarkets were happy to stock. Production costs are lower abroad and transport costs minimal. Our climate is also not as helpful as it might be. Typically commercial orchards in Britain have declined by around 80% in the last 100 years.<\/p>\n

Once every farm had its orchard and the farm workers were paid partly in cider, brewed on the farm. When it became illegal to do this, the need for the orchards began to disappear. Maes y Felin, for example, had an orchard running down the field to the east of the house to not far from where the Welsh Orchard is now situated. And then there were the country \"\"houses which often had an area set aside for fruit. The large house, The Grange, in Wenvoe was one such and Orchard Close is a reminder of what was once there. At the other end of the scale was the cottager who might have a cow, some chickens and, of course, a fruit tree or two. Both have been replaced by modern housing. Gardens are getting smaller and increasingly are paved over. Many orchards were dug up during the last war when Dig For Victory actually encouraged uprooting fruit trees and replacing them with vegetables which were considered a more efficient use of land. Agricultural subsidies often provided similar incentives for farmers.<\/p>\n

So the reasons for the decline are many and varied. What some perhaps find more disappointing is the apparent lack of interest in reversing the trend. With all the housing development in the parish has a single fruit tree – even a crab-apple – been planted as part of the landscaping? Does the Vale of Glamorgan Council or do the Highways authorities include fruit trees when planning their roadside planting? And then there are our businesses whether pubs, farms or quarry operators? Hopefully the next issue of What\u2019s On will include letters from around the parish on the positive actions that people have taken to put things right.<\/p>\n

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NATURE NOTES More Apple History We left last month with apple-growing in Britain at its peak and several thousand varieties available, many of them developed and bred in Britain. Wenvoe had at least 15 orchards in 1900, clearly shown on the Ordnance Survey map. Whilst the odd relict tree may remain hidden away in a garden or farm, the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-2d3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8363,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8363","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":0},"title":"Community Orchards Resurgence","author":"Alan Williams","date":"5th October 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"NATURE NOTES Community Orchards Resurgence With 5 Community Orchards in the parish we are starting to reclaim some of the ground lost through the wholesale removal of orchards over the last hundred years. In this and future articles we shall consider the origin of orchards, the history of their rise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Picture5.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Picture5.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6590,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6590","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":1},"title":"A Good Year For Apples","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th September 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A Good Year For Apples Generally it has been a good year for our apples and many of the trees in our orchards have been heavily laden with fruit. Also doing well are the insects, particularly wasps and butterflies, that appreciate apples that have started to over-ripen. Our camera traps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Pic-07.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3206,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3206","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":2},"title":"Apples","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st May 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 If you visit the orchards in May you should still see plenty of blossom around, the majority of the trees being apples. But what is an apple and where does it come from? The first distinction is between the crab-apple and the sweet apple that we eat. The crab\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8726,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8726","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":3},"title":"The Welsh Have No Use For Orchards!","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Welsh Have No Use For Orchards nor Gardens! (The Welsh) have no use for orchards nor gardens'. So said Gerald of Wales, the 12th\/13th century historian and archdeacon of Brecon. We described in the previous two issues something of the background and history of the sweet apple - so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Picture7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2724,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=2724","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":4},"title":"Apple and Lemon Samosas","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Apple and Lemon Samosas 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped Zest of one lemon 50g caster sugar 1 tsp ground mixed spice 50g sultanas 4 sheets of filo pastry 25g melted butter \u00a0 Heat oven 180C. Place the apples, lemon zest, sug-ar, mixed spice and sultanas in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr Greedy's Kitchen"","block_context":{"text":"Mr Greedy's Kitchen","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=129"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8218","url_meta":{"origin":8497,"position":5},"title":"Commentaries On Nature","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Nature Notes Commentaries on Nature will always be something of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So let's start at the grimmer end of the spectrum. Neonicotinoids are a form of insecticide widely used in the 1990s but when evidence became clear that they were killing bees they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Gabalva-8-20-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8500,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497\/revisions\/8500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}