Afternoon sessions: in the World Cafe format
The questions were:
There follows a transcription of the notes from the intense discussions in small groups that took place over an hour and a half...
- What is our shared vision for orchards in Scotland?
- What opportunities and resources are available to us that would help achieve our vision?
- What are our wise next steps?
There follows a transcription of the notes from the intense discussions in small groups that took place over an hour and a half...
What is our shared vision for Orchards in Scotland?
Working back in time - starting with a contribution marked -
3 generations from now:
2064
2050
2044
2039
2034
2029
2024
2024
2022
2021
2020
2019
2017
2015
2014
3 generations from now:
- A cultural change in how we value and view local food in Scotland. We will be self sufficient in all the Scottish fruit we can grow here. Orchards for all.
- Picked by 1, with all, for all. A quantity of quality orchards and their associated habitats used as a vehicle for sustainable social change.
2064
- Lopcider. Orchards are ubiquitous in Scotland. Sustainable mixed agriculture with trees, orchard, pigs, hens2050
- Behaviour change; Scotland will be self sufficient in growing and using Scottish apples.
2050
- Promote local types. Develop local skills. Create local business opportunities. Reduce food miles.
2044
- No food poverty. No food waste. Biodiversity. Bees. Culture of growing, value of food, value of biodiversity. Learn how to deter pests. Permaculture. Justice and sharing. Networks well connected to reduce surplus waste.
- More orchards to be planted, generated by creating more demand for the apples themselves, and other benefits communities can take from using their orchards, cultural, bee-keeping, therapy, recreation and ecological benefits.
- Every school in Scotland should have an orchard
2039
- Linear, no-walls orchards. Community orchards. Everyone should have access to an orchard, Scotland wide. Changing council planting policy. Community capital. Breed the perfect Scottish apple. Change social views of what the perfect fruit and vegetable is. Eating season fruit. Public availability of knowledge of where fruit is. Work with our current resources. Scottish self sufficiency in apples. Children visiting orchards.
2034
- Pick your Own commercial orchards all over Scotland
- Culture around orchards and processing making. Culture – change people-create demand- local food
- Locally grown fruit all used with no waste. Easy access shared by all. Many kinds of orchards. Bees saved. Education for growing. Cancer-inducing pesticides gone. Change of land use. Beautiful blossom
- Education for all. Everybody should have access to an orchard. No walls. New buildings to be made a fruit trees area. Scottish apples in shops. New Scottish variety. Eating seasonally. Access to groups for preserving and using fruit productively. Self sufficiency in Scotland of orchard fruit
- Orchards of all different sizes and different contents that help provide access to all, including building of links between producers and consumers. A Scotland that is self sufficient in apples.
- More accessible orchards. Orchards in hospitals, prisons, schools. More use in orchards; bigger diversity, eg animals bees. Expand public use eg park or outdoor space to enjoy theatre or yoga. More respect shown by children -don't snap branches without understanding consequences. Education.
- Access for all to orchards and resources. Integrate fruit and nut trees in all infrastructure. Recognise value of orchards. Change consumer attitudes and behaviours. Orchards available accessible to all in a wide variety of formats and contexts, supported by community access to equipment for processing. Feed Scotland with Scottish food.
- A revitalisation of old and the introduction of new; orchards right across Scotland. Orchards should become the local focus for communities. Main-streaming local produce for all ages. All social groups – entrepreneurial-ism. Opportunities for new produce types. Enjoying local orchards. Wassailing events, poetry days, adopt-a-tree for children, schools etc
2029
- Generating demand for Scottish fruit among commercial and private consumers, by reconnecting people with the cultural heritage and futures of scot lands orchards.
- Connection between groups. New generation of people who learned from community orchards
- Our orchards are loved, used and looked after by all. Fruit is used locally. Schools engage with orchards regularly and they become the focal point for the community.
- Scotland self sufficient in fruit grown in public space that’s used well and diversely grown.
- Scotland as a vibrant garden of Eden, planting growing enjoying consuming. Community assets.
- Scotland self sufficient in fruit. Under plant orchards with veg and chickens. Need change at population level in taste, culture, legislation – can follow examples from drink-driving and anti smoking campaigns
2024
- Locally produced premium apples in good favourable locations
- Not necessarily commercial orchards – need small scale model across Scotland. Get people and kids involved so they feel part of it right from the start.
2024
- Commercial production to be small farm shop type markets
- A community resource providing food and biodiversity, where fruits are valued and not wasted. A place of escape and replenishment available to all.
- Focus on community, especially children to appreciate source of fruit and diversity
- Historical perspective, local knowledge, education, seasonality, cooking
- Everyone in Scotland has access to Scottish orchard fruit. Every educational establishment has access to an orchard. Seasonal festivals and celebrations. Agroforestry
- Everyone in Scotland has access to Scottish fruit. Agroforestry becomes the norm. fruit production integrated with nuts and livestock
- More orchards, productive, fed communities, food security. Accessible, managed for the public to enjoy. Schools, hospitals, prisons. Therapeutic opportunities. Polyculture. Green gym. Fragrant species, mixed planting. Respect from younger generation. School outdoor classroom. Utilise underused common ground.
- Scottish apples in Scottish shops. Affordable.
- More orchards planted in hospitals and schools. More common ground used for orchards rather than being weed infested.
2022
- Productive, managed, shared knowledge, connectivity, cooperatives, organisations
2021
- People have access to their own, or community, orchard. They take responsibility for their orchard and share the resource
2020
- Getting people interested in a variety of tastes and different types of locally grown fruits in Scotland Encouraging growing and selling and eating. Local shops, markets in short term.
- Commercial – community differential. Personal vision for all of us
2019
- Revitalisation and new planting. Outlets for local varieties to restore their commercial viability. Involve children. Obliging supermarkets to provide a minimum quote of local produce
- Varieties, community resource and possibility of education and training skills, food production
- More fruit eaten from locally sourced crops. Orchards cared fro and managed as important shared family or community resource.
- Local fruit supplying local schools and shops. More adventurous varieties. Better use of existing trees. Cooking and eating apples in schools
- Skills, education, promotion of local varieties and encourage community and commercial enterprise.
2017
- A large scale but decentralised network of orchards which produce a product that you can buy in the shops and that gives community groups a revenue.
- Local fruit for local shops. More tasty varieties. Organic
- Local fruit for local people, connecting producers with consumers
2015
- Spring blossom, preservation of knowledge, increasing connection between children and nature. Five trees makes an orchard
- More integrated system with a diversity of products sharing resources and labour force.
2014
- More orchards, networked, shared resources, access to markets, value added, focus on urban, holistically managed.
- Spread the argument for fruit trees to a wider audience, encouraging a market for local fruit, growing in a sustainable manner
- Urban trees, developing houses
- More of everything
- Community access to land, collaboration between different bodies to achieve this; councils, voluntary groups, schools, care homes, funding bodies
- Fruit growing available to all, sustainable growing, shared space orchards, lots of local produce, local distribution, community
- To educate children from a very early age to care for, value and love orchard trees. To involve children in the growing of the trees, to plant an nurture them and harvest the fruit. They will then care for orchard wherever they live and teach others to.
- Education, cultural changes, good food nation, clever land use.
- More networked orchards developed using shared resources and knwledge and including commercial and community/health benefits
- Shared community town orchard, virtuous cycle, school
- More orchards, local economies, creative spaces
- Everyone in Scotland has access to Scottish apples, plums etc. reconnecting to seasonal produce, festivals. Brings communities together – social, health & well being, support network. Every school, college, has an orchard or access to an orchard. Upskilling, knowledge
What opportunities and resources are available to us that would help achieve our vision?
Now
2015
2016
2017
2016-2019
2019
2024
2029
- People and knowledge. Good food nation. Land and garden shares. Working community and schools.
- People – knowledge, enthusiasm, community links, skills
- Jumping on rising movement for local food and demand from commercial buyers of fruit.
- People are more receptive. Popular culture and events – grow your won (Jamie Oliver), slow meat and food (River Cottage High Fearnley-whittingstall). Recession – more frugality, political shift towards Green.
- Scottish school – curriculum for excellence, outside focus (forest schools), food
- Local fruit tree nurseries producing acclimatised, hardy locally grown stock of local heritage varieties.
- Natural resources – soil, climate
- The opportunity to purchase community level and make use of existing land.
- Housing development – get a fruit tree per house.
- Children, schools. College. NHS
- Pensioners time. Experience of other growers (eg in SE England, Bristol) in community agriculture
- Forth Valley Orchards, immense support. This conference is an achievement already. More access to land.
- Communication and connection. Access to information. Wealth of knowledge.
- Cultural heritage and history to tap into
- Opportunity to share knowledge, examples. Tell the story to the public. Engage with farmers and landowners.
- Knowledge. Local experts. Knowledge transfer/apprentices. Published studies. Social media knowledge sharing. Organisations such as Commonwealth orchard
- Preserve the old and plant the new. Scottish government. Food and drink. Orchard archivist (Crispin). Scottish identification centre
- Value the old orchards. Be prepared to improve them, to fit in with climate change, changing tastes and uses.
- Scottish Year of Food and Drink 2015 – tap into resources to promote Scottish orchards.
- Value the knowledge of fruit trees we have and make it widely available before it is lost.
- Group of orchard archivists and enthusiasts.
- Form a Brogdale full of Scottish trees
- Time and staff to maintain the orchard.
- Private or community land or farm
- education facilities available.
- Political commitment for research
- volunteers – charity 2000 fruit trees, 3 acres, 50 fruit trees.
- All sides of the society, market, politicians.
- People that want to the situation
- A lot of students that want to be mixing with old people that know how to do it
- People that want to go outside the big city
- People with knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, commitment
- Good food nation
- Land: work with schools, garden share, underused landowners
- Loads of existing orchards
- People (connected)
- Renaissance of interest and growth in opportunities to learn about fruit growing – we need to build on this through a network co-ordinated by an 'umbrella' national body
2015
- Collective expertise in the room. Orchard inventory. Eco schools network. The seed truck. Heinecken funding. Template for community apple event. Community food fund (£25K)
- Resource – knowledge and expertise.
- Opportunities – pass it on. Engage with formal education (college), as well as informal outreach to all people.
2016
- Year of Food and Drink (2015) – do Scottish government has funds and resources available for orchard revival, promotion and celebration? Could use this to fund a range of other ideas.
- Expertise and resources, skills in the room.
- The existing orchards. Apple growing enthusiasts.
- Government funding ((2015 Year of Food and Drink)
- skills, workshops.
- Knowledge archive
- orchard inventory. Orchard road show
- Commercial possibilities will enable land to be made available.
- Social regeneration sites.
- Collaboration with existing bodies
2017
- Potential government funding would be required to up-scale orchard projects to a commercial scale
- The people in this room, their skills, knowledge, enthusiasm, vision
- Drawing on existing expertise
- Local authority public open spaces
- 1 national voice
- commercial support – farmers, fruit growers, social enterprise
- Scottish Rural Parliament
- Social media cool – don’t lose expertise.
- Transitional skills network
- Old orchards.
- Combined knowledge of today
- Scottish Pomona (UK fruit specialist)
- non theoretical work for students
2016-2019
- Resource – Scottish apples. They taste amazing – we need everyone to realise that.
2019
- Manpower
- volunteers of all ages
- school groups, John Muir award
- NGOs such as Forth Environment Link
- Different groups such as garden clubs, history groups not normally involved in orchards – all can contribute something, including knowledge transfer and research, surveys
- Ground – schools, public parks, cemeteries, hospitals, care homes, derelict ground, playing fields
- Parliamentary legislation led my community pressure
- Government funding £10 per orchard tree levy
- commonwealth games £500million of public money. There is money out there. Funding would help,
- Outdoor learning in schools is growing in importance. Educating, involving, changing attitudes, reconnecting to local food
- Land availability
- Housing developers
- orchard awards
- NHS land
- social media and networks
- Use “new” political or people driven resource “Scottish rural parliament”
- Heineken
- Communal juicing equipment
- access to community orchards
- curriculum for excellence
- Unused land becoming available
- Sharing knowledge, participating in days like today (Orchard Gathering)
- Availability of land
- funding
- Expertise from organisations and people in this gathering shared with education providers
- Schooling, community funding. Is community more important than shaking the funding tree?
- Reform of land use
- empowering community groups to bring around change with or without funding
2024
- Subsidy question – how to get scale when farmers?
- Trial plots and research
- horticulture industry skills an scale in soft fruit and they can invest in apples
- Finance
- grants
- lottery
- Heritage Lottery Fund
- Land Fill Tax
- People more confident in growing
- more Scottish varieties for sale
- could create new varieties
- getting more youth involved
- Community funding, volunteers, collaboration.
- People active from the community.
- Encourage “islands in cities” orchards organised by a group.
- Teaching responsible behaviours
- take initiative locally
2029
- Community involvement
- shift the idea that we rely on others to fund projects – people momentum
- Alter the way we think about health and safety – let the people think common sense and stop restricting ideas and projects because of health and safety.
- DIY grow in tubs
- Educate local authorities.
- Small grants
- think about maintenance and pruning
- Raised awareness
- increased communications
- cooperation
- development trusts
- legislation
- Sharing resources, tools, knowledge
- Hook into existing neglected orchards needing TLC
- sharing land
- Sharing collective resources and cooperatives
- legislation so owners have a duty to maintain trees
- maintaining current orchards – custodians
- people power to survive
- Social media
- The knowledge in this room
What are our wise next steps?
Right now
2015
2 years
3 years
4 years
5 years
10 years
Infinity
- Teaching children what fruits are and how they grow – in orchards, shops and in schools
- Jams, chutneys
- Farmers markets, secondary schools, involvement of 13-16 yr olds
- Internet link or website, Conferences
- Orchard Network – resources, local advice
- Graftathons
- Gatherings
- Help Crispin to complete the National Orchard Inventory
- Building on the enthusiasm of today
- Apprentice or mentoring scheme
- Balance between 'hobby' and 'commerical' approach
- Encourage John Butterworth to update and republish his book (or turn it into a pdf)
- Lobby Scottish Gov, councillors etc for
- 1.Improved rights to access/buy land for fruit growing
- 2.Funding
- Connecting buyers and sellers – streetbank style?
2015
- Body needed to co-ordinate orchard support across Scotland
- Share our skills, knowledge and experience
- Mentorship – formal network
- Support through conversation, bank of skills, knowledge, expertise
- Year of Food and Drink: be involved, pro-actively garner publicity and education
- Orchard officers in councils
- Getting a 'champion' to talk things up and promote fruit-growing
- Opportunity to do this in 2015 (Scotland year of Food and Drink)
- Lobbying for land rights/ purchase for communities/ small rights
- Funding – at right scale and in an accessible wayRecord knowledge and wisdom of more senior participants of today so that it is not lost to the nation – do it soon
- Legislation: incentives for farmers to establish orchards, land reform
- Research into new varieties and products
- Collaboration, community, sharing knowledge
- Online forum
- Connect: create a network of/platform for growers
- Connect: people with trees, people with time, people with equipment
- Linking offers with wants eg expertise, land, labour, skills
- Intergenerational skill sharing
- Now and ongoing
- Keep momentum gong from today
- Keep networking
- Boycott supermarket imorted apples
- Buy local from box schemes and farmers' markets
- Just do it! Just grow it! (no real expertise needed)
- Make information and knowledge easily accessible: web, blogs, social media, self-published books, pdf files
- Celebrity celebration of local fruit
- Raising the profile of Scottish apples and all of our orchards
- Just go to the town and speak with the people that is possible build something together
- Land reform
- Work with children and young people to educate about local fruit
- A list of all the participants: skills, study visits, contacts
- Low-cost supplies
- Sharing bulk orders
- Community involvement – education of young – will lead to paradigm shift
- Campaign: business, grassroots, political/national
- Branding
- Educate kids adults, farmers
- Create demand for Scottish fresh produce
- Plant everywhere: gardens, public spaces, farms, schools
- Encourage farmers to create orchards
- Working from bottom up= getting kids engaged
- Community orchards – work and eat produce
2 years
- Regular forums/conferences (like today). Maybe annually or every two years to keep momentum gong and to give an opportunity for new people to get involved/ a way to learn and share
- Funding: government/ local charities
- Publicity, journalists. Raise awareness
- Community focus / younger generation
- Consolidate for integration
- Lobby for SRDP funds
- Business development plan for pilot producers' networks
- Focus on procurement (selling to schools/ hospitals) and CO2
- Connecting small orchards to pool resources to get scale and create revenue
- Added value processing – cakes, pies, products
- Community Food Fund – entity to apply for funding
- Creating demand
3 years
- Teach the next generations
- Plant more orchards – the right varieties in the right places
- Public procurement - Flavours and local food – requires policy change
- Land tax? - To free up land?
- Community buy-outs
- Educating understanding the importance of apples for orchard culture
4 years
- Health promotion – insist on natual knowledge away from commercial influence
5 years
- Supermarket minimum quota for selling local produce
- Apple festival
- Raise awareness about how delicious Scottish apples are – and get them into the supermarkets
- Publicise Scottish apples – let's have Apple Fests like Oktoberfest
- Make Scottish apples available – on gumtree and on High Street
- Need to be produced on bigger scale – co-op farms?
- Supermarket quotas – local produced minimum
- Confirm an umbrella organisations
- Publicity – on local varieties and benefits
- A Scottish Apple Festival
- One-stop information place
- Local councils, landowners need to be more open and supporting and providing land!
- Putting pressure on supermarkets to do things differently
- Minimum fee to give producers, minimum amount of local produce per square metre in shops?
- Orchard stamp?
- Keep orchard fruit and local food good value
10 years
- Share the knowledge
- Create a new orchard culture
- Create demand
- Set up a national orchard, preferably open to the public or tacked onto an exisiting business (farm shop) or visitor attraction (NTS property)
- Community involvement, kids must be involved (harvesting?)
- Bring back plundering!
- Keep up the good work
- Make children more aware
- Plan for new strains of fruit for climate change
- Scotland the Fruit story – story/video/narrating
- Repository of knowledge
- National Orchard Group to lobby, communicate etc
- Get Green MSPs
- Guerilla movement and apples advertised
- Local conservation/conversation cafes and ceilidhs
Infinity
- Everyone at the Orchard Gathering write a note to Parliament or do a 56 degree type social media strategy
- Skills training for commercial scale and domestic/community
- Online petition/live letter writing to MSP
- Cider with Morag!
- Diversification of orchard habitat
- Increase awareness and campaign
- Learn through practice
- One Stop Shop for collating information from all the experts (before they pass on...)
- Website connected to inventory
- A national Scots fruit tree collection – Megginch? - where people can visit and pick fruit and taste and buy trees etc. Shop, books, education for schools etc etc
- Plant more Scottish trees from Scottish nurseries