The Scottish Orchards event in the Royal
Botanic Gardens on the 16th of June was quite a remarkable place to
be. The dark rain clouds hanging over the capital all day did little to dampen
the enthusiasm of the 100 plus delegates who listened to a wide range of
speakers who outlined their projects and their hopes for furthering the cause
of fruit growing in Scotland .
Two MSPs were present to give their support
after the introduction by John Hancox and then there was a talk by Dr Jim
Paterson of the Entire Kintyre campaign. Over 1400 fruit trees have been
planted on the Kintyre peninsula. Jim has a vision of such regional orchards
all over Scotland . I attended his workshop in the afternoon to find out more about
his project. He simply began by asking schools, housing associations and other
public bodies and voluntary groups if they would like some trees and if they
could donate funds to the campaign. It worked remarkably well and is still
continuing as those participating come up with more funds for trees.
Interesting too was Charles Winstanley,
chair of NHS Lothian who talked about the creation of community gardens on NHS
land for fruit and veg growing. The only drawback here are short-term leases as
the land available may be needed for development in the future. Charles
outlined the health benefits of patients, staff and local communities growing
their own food.
Officialdom was represented by Keith
Geddes, the Chair of Central Scotland Green Network. He focused on how activists
can influence politicians.
And then there were details from
representatives of many of the ongoing projects in Scotland
ranging from orchards on public land in Glasgow , St Andrews and Buckhaven to
restoration type projects in walled gardens not open to the public.
All the delegates seemed determined to
extend the concept of communities growing their own fruit throughout Scotland .
I’m sure many plotters and others in Nairn interested in growing fruit and veg
would have found themselves instantly at home in the company of the Scottish
Orchards folk. Growing your own food can have an empowering effect on
individuals and communities as we have witnessed in Nairn and the idea of
planting more fruit trees in the community can have the same effect.
John Hancox the chair of Scottish Orchards
will be coming to Nairn in November as a guest of Nairn Allotment Society and
will be giving a talk in the Community Centre. Watch the website for more
details nearer the date.
No comments:
Post a Comment