Apple Harvest Day

Crabapples, rose hips, rowans and elderberries collected from Durham University English Department Garden

Another joint staff-student volunteering opportunity saw us team up with Fruitful Durham to harvest fruit from the University Grounds.


"Every year tonnes of freely available wild fruit goes to waste in and around Durham because as a society we have become increasingly reliant instead on purchasing fruit from supermarkets which has often been unnecessarily shipped thousands of miles. Many people no longer feel they have the knowledge or skills to use hedgerow crops, nor the time to find and collect it, and have lost an awareness of the seasonality of produce. This contributes to a massive global wastage of finite resources, supporting ultimately unsustainable lifestyles both here and in other countries and creating a lack of connection to the infinitely rich potential available within our own community. Fruitful Durham aims to offer a local solution to this problem."

We started off the day assisting Hallgarth Care Home with two trees overladen with apples. The collected fruit were used in their kitchen, offered to visitors for a donation to the home and there was still an excess for Fruitful Durham.

We moved down the road, to the garden of the English Department where we collected a colourful array of various fruit, as pictured. Plans for new jam, jelly and cheese combinations were discussed as the team busied away. Before we knew it, it was time to stop for lunch and an opportunity to try some products, as prepared earlier!

Some people left and new people joined and we set off to the garden of the Principal of St Cuthbert's Society who had kindly given permission for us to pick from her apple-laden tree. We filled every bag, box and container we had been able to bring. We kept our eyes peeled for the notorious pear trees of the College of St Hild and St Bede, only to find them completely bare of leaves, let alone fruit.

As the rain really started to pour, we headed to the medlar tree on the science site. This bizarre fruit is a cross between an apple and rosehip, which can only be eaten once bletted (half-rotten).

Fruit collected from the day is being used by Fruitful Durham to make juices, jams and chutneys to be sold locally in events such as this Saturday's Apple Day in Durham Market.