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On Your Farm: Saving Devon’s Forgotten Orchards

29/11/2020

Saving Devon’s Forgotten Orchards

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Saving Devon’s Forgotten Orchards

Rachel Lovell meets a young couple on a mission to save traditional English orchards.

Rachel Lovell meets a young couple in Devon who are trying to save orchards from abandonment, by making fine cider from apples which would otherwise have been left to rot.

The traditional English orchard is in trouble. Once a prized feature of many farms, earning its keep through sales of cider and fruit, it has been undermined by cheap apple imports and incentives to grow other crops. It's estimated that two-thirds of English orchards have disappeared since 1950. Now a young couple in Devon have come up with a way of saving remaining orchards from abandonment and further decline. Polly and Mat Hilton harvest the apples usually left to rot and turn them into cider. In exchange they foster and take care of the orchard. Rachel Lovell joins them during peak harvest season, to hear how they have created special ciders using wine-making techniques, and to talk about their hopes for the future of forgotten orchards all over the country.  

Produced and presented by Rachel Lovell.

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