This October will see Common Ground hold its 18th Apple Day throughout the country. A national charity, Common Ground held the first Apple Day in London’s Covent Garden to draw attention to the plight of our orchards as well as the versatility of British home-grown fruit.

Now an integral part of the calendar in many villages, local authorities and city markets, Apple Day was first held in the old Apple Market and managed to bring fruit back to the market after a 16-year absence. Forty stalls were taken in all, with fruit growers and nurseries producing and selling a wide variety of apples and trees mingling and producing further business.

This year Common Ground hopes that Apple Day, October 21, will be the best ever and it will be celebrating in 10 thousand ways across the country. As part of this campaign, Common Ground will be striving to save old orchards and plant new ones, encouraging the wildlife of old orchards and asking museums and art galleries to feature work of art that depict orchards and apples. As well as encouraging the demand for home-grown fruit and locally produced juice and cider, Common Ground is also campaigning for Apple Day as the autumn holiday.

According to the DEFRA Basic Horticultural Statistics 2006, in 2005 Britain imported 71 per cent of its apples, which is an 11 per cent increase in 10 years. Common Ground insist that this is putting British growers out of business and therefore causing orchards to be pulled out and incurring more food miles.

The 2007 Apple Day events will go online in July.

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