Passion fruit

October is the month of fruit harvest, but did you know those Conference pears and Czar plums in your shopping basket were created right here in Herts?

- Richard Burton

On the first Sunday of each month a group of volunteers gather at a four-acre orchard in Sawbridgeworth armed with rakes, hedge-cutters and pruning shears – along with a desire to preserve both the trees in their care and what is probably Hertfordshire’s greatest horticultural legacy.

There have been two such maintenance days since lockdown restrictions were lifted and now the supporters of The Rivers Heritage Site and Orchard are looking to take one further step back to normality by continuing their tradition of an apple day on Saturday October 3. This is a true community event; one in which volunteers, villagers and visitors congregate, not just to celebrate the heritage of the horticultural legend that is Thomas Rivers, but to get among the 560 trees and harvest the fruit, much as villagers did years ago.

Most of the apples collected go for pressing at Apple Cottage Cider in Baldock to make an exclusive brand of juice that is then sold to raise funds to support the nursery and keep its heritage, quite literally, alive. Last year hundreds turned up and more than 1,200 bottles were produced. This year they’re likely to be limited to a comparative handful of people.

‘It’s not going to be the big event we’ve had in the past four or five years,’ says volunteer Rob Richardson. ‘We’re limited to 30 at any event and certain things such as small pressings to make juice for the children won’t be able to happen. But the picking still can, so there’ll be an event of sorts.’