The Orchard
We planted our first medlar trees at Eastgate in the winter of 2012/13. We had just moved here, me from the city of my birth, London, and my husband David from his Cambridgeshire home. Director of operations was my eldest daughter, then about to become a mum, and the digging team was our blended brood of sons and daughters supported by me and David. The four year old ‘wedding tree’ went in first, followed by nine more, all two year olds.
Deciding to launch a medlar fruit focused business in 2016 meant planting lots of additional trees, which we did, in stages over four winters. There are now 115 of them. The vast majority are the versatile and delicious ‘Nottingham’. To complement them are pairs of eight additional horticultural, culinary cultivars. Altogether they make up this Plant Heritage National Collection of Mespilus germanica. They are planted around our six acre plot in five discrete areas.
We are on variable, free draining, agricultural soil. In some places it’s almost pure sand beneath a layer of top soil. In other spots, I suspect the presence of an aquifer. The summer of 2022 was instructive, and I have a much better understanding of what I can’t see below the soil line.
The trees themselves are pretty self reliant. Bare for not much more than three months of the year, they are in full leaf by late March, in blossom during May and the fruit is usually ready to harvest from the last week of October onwards.
Visitors are welcome, especially in May and October, and harvest volunteers in November.
If you’re tempted, do let me know at janesteward@eastgatelarder.co.uk
