damon green

The large one on the left looks like it might be a Blenheim Orange. The one on the right is almost certainly a Golden Delicious. The only other apple it looks like is the Emneth Early which fruits in August. Please borrow our book on English Apples and bewilder yourself with the possibilities...

Yes, good idea. Effectively, setting up the East Dulwich Orchard Collective will give me a good reason to knock on people's doors.

Alec - I like the word `Mappling'. May I borrow it? One of the Collective has already started work on this, it will be a lot of work but we will see how it goes. Nero - that tree is actually the one which started me thinking about this. It stands in a private garden and the fruit falls in a private yard. None, as far as I can tell, is ever used. It is a crying shame. Jamma - I am a couple of steps ahead of you there. I have been making cider for years. I have all the gear and would be happy to share it, to make cider with apples from East Dulwich. Siduhe - enthusiasm is the most important ingredient of cider making. Apart from apples, of course. Thank you for your interest: if the Collective gets off the ground, it will be to promote the care of the fruit trees in our gardens, and to encourage people to see their trees, and their efforts, as part of a greater whole. Trees pollinate each other in the spring, they infect one another when they are sick, they support a community of birds and insects, dependants and parasites. When a tree dies or is cut down, all the others are affected. Likewise, it's easier for two people to prune a tree than to do it on your own; five people can pick plums faster than one; and you can't drink a barrel of perry on your own. So if we do it together it will be fun. Much more fun, I can promise you, than making a documentary about it.

Thank you to everyone who stopped outside Franklin's today and tried some apple juice. I spoke to some very interesting people, and there was plenty of positive reaction to the idea of an Orchard Collective. The idea is to encourage people to grow more organic fruit in their gardens, to care for the many elderly and `heritage' varieties of fruit in our Victorian suburb and just as importantly, to see our individual trees as part of a larger whole. If this is an idea that appeals to you - if you have a fruit tree in your garden, or have a neighbour who does, please contact me at [email protected]. I hope to be outside Franklin's again next Saturday, please stop and say hello. Damon Green