A £1,000 orchard of Cheerfull Gold apple trees has been planted at Pershore College in Worcestershire, after being donated by Dr Theresa Huxley and orchard supplier J R Breach.
Sainsbury’s product technologist Huxley first won £1,000 of fruit trees in a prize draw at the National Fruit Show in 2009 and chose to donate the trees to help students at Hadlow College in Kent learn about commercial top fruit production.
The gesture so impressed J R Breach that the company chose to give Huxley £1,000 of its new apple variety Cheerfull Gold at 2011’s National Fruit Show.
Huxley has decided to donate the orchard to Pershore College and planting has taken place in glorious sunshine with the help of a 40-strong planting team that included students, staff and some of Huxley’s colleagues from Sainsbury’s head office.
The Orchard is made up of 5 different planting systems each in a separate 50 metre row split in two by a central cross walkway, so 10 different treatments can be used.
Once the trees were in the ground, the college’s assistant principal of landbased, Julia Page, thanked Huxley for donating the orchard to the college describing them as “an exciting resource for the future”.
Before leaving, all helpers were offered a Cheerfull Gold tree to take home and plant.
No comments yet