News & Events 2025

..... ..... .....

LEICESTERSHIRE
HERITAGE APPLES PROJECT:
NEWS 2025

Events
We are running a grafting course on the third Saturday in Feb 2026, all day, 9.30 for 10.00; £50. If interested please get in touch; email address is diversity(at)suttonelms.org.uk. We have a group size of 8.

Venue is Cosby Methodist Church, Leicestershire LE9 1RN.

IN THE ORCHARD
A more comprehensive guide to what we offer is on Mel Wilson's LHAP website 'In the Orchard', where a list of our LHAP workshops and talks can be found.

EVENTS SUMMARY 2025
Sat 8 Jan Grafting Workshop, Amber Valley Vineyard (Mel & Saff)
Sat 18 Jan Pruning Day, Cotesbach Hall. 10am-1pm. (not an LHAP event).
Sat 18 Jan Pruning Course, Amber Valley Vineyard (Mel)
Sun 2 Feb Grafting Workshop, 2hr, 10am, Hathern Community Orchard gp. (Mel & Saff)
Sun 2 Feb Grafting Workshop, 2hr, 3pm, local allotment holders. (Mel & Saff)
Sat 8 Feb Pruning Day round 2, Cotesbach Hall, 10am - 1 pm, (not LHAP)
Sat 15 Feb: all-day Cosby grafting course, 9.30 for 10.00; ends 3.00-3.30(ish) Cosby Methodist Church. (Nigel & Alison) £48 pp. RESCHEDULED TO 1 MAR.
Sat 15 Feb: Grafting Workshop, Community Orchard Group, Mkt. Harborough (Mel & Dave)
Sun 23 Feb: Nigel assisting Lubenham grafters & growers; grafting session. (not LHAP)
Wed 14 Apr: Cottesmore Garden Club, talk on Leicestershire Heritage Apples, 2pm (Nigel & Alison)
Sun 29 Jun: Leic Uni Botanical garden, plant & family day. All day (10am - 5pm? but check on website) (N and A)
Sat 6 Sep: Swithland Fruit & Flower Show, all afternoon. (N and A)
Sat 11 Oct, Cosby Apple Day, all day. Times t.b.c. (Nigel & Alison)
Sun 12 Oct, Apple Day, apple tasting at Donisthorpe orchard, 11.00am - 3pm. (Nigel & Alison)
Mon 27 Oct; 2.00 for 2.30: Talk on LHAP to S.Wigston Flower/Gdn Club Soc., Sal. Army Hall, as last year. (Nigel & Alison) POSTPONED

EVENTS SUMMARY 2026
There will be a pruning day for volunteers at Cotesbach Hall orchard in the New Year. (not LHAP)
Sat 21 Feb: all-day Cosby grafting course, 9.30 for 10.00; ends 3.00-3.30(ish) Cosby Methodist Church. (Nigel & Alison) £48 pp.
Late Jun: Leic Uni Botanical garden, plant & family day. All day. Date not yet available. (N and A)
Sun 11 Oct: apple tasting at Donisthorpe orchard, 11.00am - 3pm. (Nigel & Alison)
-------------------------------------

DONISTHORPE APPLE DAY
Sun 12 Oct: This was held outdoors, in the orchard. There has been a bumper crop of apples this year, and the site is obviously well looked after. Leicestershire Heritage Apples (Alison and me on this occasion) were given a prominent position on the top track; we were clearly visible to everyone as they entered the plot and we had a lot of interest from visitors. There were lots of other stalls though we were too busy conducting apple tastings (almost continuous from 11 am to 3 pm) to look at many of them. However I managed to buy some delicious cakes for lunch from the Donisthorpe Primary School stand and a couple of hot drinks from the people manning the barbeque, and we had some moderate-volume folk music which was loud enough to enjoy but not too loud to stop us talking to our visitors. I noticed some demijohns and bottles on two of the tables so I assume the cidermaking competition was in full swing.

We set out eight apples for people to try; Braeburn from our orchard, some varieties which very few people know about, and two of our own seedlings. We saw lots of regulars we recognized from previous Apple Days, and as usual, we were visited by four of our old grafting students who reported on the progress of their trees. One person wanted the name of the tree he'd grafted about 15 years ago - he brought we a couple of appples - it was Christmas Pink; one of Albert Etter's releases; a pink-fleshed apple with a superb flavour which can be kept until Easter. Unfortunately it is a martyr to bitter pit, but you can't have everything.

We had lots of discussions with the people who tasted our apples: about the apple market, why people eat apples, the restricted flavours you get when you buy from the supermarkets, and the vast range of the flavours which exist in this amazing fruit; we have apples which taste of citrus, vanilla, anise, honey, blackberry; even celery. And the supermarkets give you Golden Delicious or Pink Lady, which are basically flavour-free. They are missing a trick here.

Please email if you would like to attend any of our grafting courses. Mel Wilson does courses in North Leicestershire; we hold an all-day (5 or 6 hour) session on the third Saturday in February in Cosby each year. The cost of the Cosby course is £50; date will be Sat 21 Feb; 9.30 for 10.00 in the Methodist Church Hall. (see link at the top for the complete list of what LHAP does). And for those of you who are curious about what you tasted - 86 of you took part - the results are shown below.

Scores:

Other pictures; click on the thumbnails for a better view.

(last pic used with the permission of those pictured)

11 Oct 25

COSBY APPLE DAY
Sat 11 Oct: A highly successful Apple Day, organized by Alison and held in the church and church hall. 100 varieties of apple were on show, including all of the Leicester Apples except Sweetings (an early type fruiting in July and early August). There was apple tasting, apple identification, advice on tree management and pest control; we were also visited by eight of our previous grafting students, 3 of whom brought fruit from their trees. One student brought in a stunning red-orange Peasgood Nonsuch weighting about a pound and a half, and a bright orange 'Sunset' apple, from trees grafted on our course in 2018. Others brought photographs.

There were apple jams and jellies from Alison (nineteen different kinds, all of them using single varieties of apples; 110 jars). They have a range of colours and flavours; the lighter-coloured are more honey-like; the pink or red have have flavours reminisent of red fruit such as blackberry or raspberry. It is unfortunate that the only way at present to experience redfleshed apples (or those with unique flavours) is to grow them yourself.

The apple tasting attracted some interest; each person was asked to taste eight varities and nominate a favourite. About sixty people took part. The results are shown in the picture below. We made the range of flavours as wide as possible, using both red and white fleshed apples, and for extra interest we included some of our own seedlings (regular readers will know that we do some commercial apple breeding). About 150 visitors passed through; an enjoyable time was had by all.

We are very grateful to our two helpers, Anne-Marie Marshall and Raffaella Mase, for their assistance in selling the jams and jellies and assisting with the tastings. They allowed the event to run smoothly; it was great to be able to answer queries from visitors without having to keep an eye on everything else. And thanks to Angie who helped us clear away quietly and efficiently at the end.

Click on the thumbnails for clearer pictures.

11 Oct 25

COSBY APPLE DAY
On Saturday we will be hosting an Apple Day at Cosby Methodist Church; a large collection of named apples plus some really unusual ones to taste; a display for Leicestershire Heritage Apples; illustrations of the principles of pruning and apple breeding (getting new varieties, choosing the parents and pollinating by hand); apple identification, single-variety apple jams and jellies, apple cakes and other things. We hope to see you there. Come and learn about apples. Times: 11am - 3.30pm. No admission fee; proceeds on sales go to the upkeep of the premises and to All We Can – Methodist Relief and Development charity.

The pictures below show an apple tasting I did with Julie Drake for Youtube in 2024.

.

7 Oct 25

POTTERS MARSTON APPLE
This apple is doing well in this very sunny season; we have three trees and they are all full of beautiful, clean-looking fruit. The original tree was a wild seedling found by Alison Deacon around 2007 near Potters Marston; sadly the original tree has been taken out during a hedge clearance.

Picture below; it is of excellent quality and shaped rather like Royal Gala:

.....

3 Oct 25

SWITHLAND FLOWER & FRUIT SHOW
Sat 6 Sep; 1pm - 5 pm, in the field behind the Griffin pub, Swithland, in aid of LOROS. Another lively day; a fair number of stalls including ours (LHAP), where we hosted a tasting of eight early apples: four named varieties and four of our seedlings. We were surprised by the popularity of 'Dragon's Blood', a redfleshed apple with high acid and tannin.

...

There were three apples brought to us to identify, which can be somewhat tricky in a very dry summer, with atypical features and early ripening. However, they appeared to be fairly straightforward: Bess Poole, Gala (rather faint in colour because grown in the shade) and Howgate Wonder. There were also questions about Discovery, grown by many people locally.

... ...
... ...

We had a couple of people asking about 'cobwebs' forming on their trees - this is caused by the apple ermine moth. The only cure, for the amateur, is to pull the infestations off as soon as they're spotted, and to be vigilant. It's not good to spray trees just a few weeks before you eat the fruit.

7 Sep 25

PLANT/ FAMILY DAY, LEICS UNI BOTANICAL GARDEN
Sun 29 Jun; a busy day; possibly the busiest we've had at the Botanical garden. A lot of interest shown in our apples pest display and our grafting courses. The next one will be on the third Saturday in Feb, 2026. Please email if interested; it's an all-day course and is at Cosby; cost £50.

29 Jun 25

LHAP TALK, COTTESMORE
Nigel and Alison gave a talk on the Leicestershire Heritage Apples Project to a keen group of enthusiasts from Cottesmore Gardening Club on 14 Apr, early afternoon. The talk covered the origins of the sweet apple and what makes an apple good enough to make it worth highlighting and propagating. The second half of the talk was about our (LHAP's) experiences in locating the known Leicestershire apples and making them available again to the public via our grafting courses.

16 Apr 25

COSBY GRAFTING COURSE, Sat 1 Mar
Another enthusiastic group of 8 students attended last Saturday's session, which lasted until about 4 o'clock. After introductions, we looked at natural grafting, then progressed to the reasons for grafting rather than using other forms of propagation. A budding simulation followed, where we noted that everyone was knife-literate and wearing appropriate hand protection.

Next we moved on to properties of bark; how canker can be cut out and how bark can flow over even substantial wounds. Then to recognizing scion wood; knowing where to look and what to do if no scions are present. Following this we started grafting itself - making V-grafts.

The lunch break included a tasting of twelve Phase 3 apples (late ripeners and good storers); you can find the varieties on the photo below. Favourite varieties were Devitt Pippin, Mere Pippin, Pinova, Xmas Pink and Utopia, a Swiss variety bred by Marcus Kobelt in the Lubera nursery. We also sampled some of Alison's apple cake, made entirely from Burford's Redflesh (a high-tannin apple which tastes bitter when raw but which is an excellent cooker). It has characteristic colour - bright red - and can also be used to make pink cider.

In the afternoon session, more V-grafts and whip & tongue were demonstrated. We then practised joining very thin scions to thick chunky rootstocks - a common situation when the tree supplying the scions is old.

Students completed the tasks without difficulty and went away with new skills and two trees. The Leicestershire varieties were popular, especially the Packington apple and the Leicestershire unique seedling Devitt Pippin. Two students brought their own scions from treasured trees.

We hope you will all remain in touch, and send pictures of your trees when they start to grow. Any queries - just email.

A few pictures from the session are shown below; click on the small pictures for clearer ones. The person unable to attend today was given a one-to-one session on 22 Mar.

2 Mar 25

... ...

... ...

... .. ... ... .. ...

2 Mar 25

GRAFTING COURSES, Sat 15 Feb
Nigel & Alison's Cosby course originally timetabled for 15 Feb but unavoidably moved to 1st March. Anyone not able to attend on the new date will be accommodated separately. Meanwhile here are some more snaps from Mel's recent workshops.

... ... ...


... ...

15 Feb 25

GRAFTING WORKSHOP, Sat 15 Feb
Another community orchard in the making for Market Harborough. Session run by Mel and Dave.

... ... ...

15 Feb 25

GRAFTING WORKSHOP, Sat 8 Feb
Another event at Amber Valley Vineyard, given by Mel and Saff. All went well; each participant departed with new skills and two trees.

9 Feb 25

ORCHARD PRUNING SESSION, COTESBACH HALL, 8 Feb 25
Another volunteers' pruning day tidying up the apple trees at Cotesbach: Sophy, Judith, Jonny and Nigel (Not an LHAP event). The Rev Wilks (a superb baking apple) needed a lot of work, as did the Bramley (rather too vigorous), and the Wyken Pippin's awkward growth habit was challenging. However the rest were fairly straightforward. We worked mainly on the older trees this time. The original Martin's Custard is now looking in much better shape after some careful chainsaw work. It was another very dull day; I don't think we saw the sun.

Many thanks to Sophy for a delightful day and for again preparing a delicious lunch. The soup and focaccia bread were awesome!

9 Feb 25

GRAFTING WORKSHOPS, Sun 2 Feb
Two grafting workshops: 10am (10 students) from Hathern Community Orchard, and at 3pm, a mixture of allotment holders and keen gardeners (9 students) interested in putting Leicestershire apples in their plots. The courses were run by Mel and Saff. The grafters all went away happily with their two trees.

We are starting to use NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology, which was new to me until Mel explained it. You may have met NFC in museums. Point your mobile phone at a tag and you get detailed information about the thing you're looking at. You can do the same with trees. Aim your smart phone at the NFC label on a tree and it can tell you when it fruits, what the fruit looks like, and the sort of ground to which it is best-suited. It can even direct you to the LHAP websites (mine or Mel's) and the list of our activities. If you visit Hathern's orchard, give it a try.

Finally I'm pleased to report that the all-day grafting course (Sat 15 Feb) at Cosby is now full; Alison and I look forward to seeing you on the day; 9.30 for 10.00.

4 Feb 25

PRUNING COURSE, AMBER VALLEY VINEYARD, 18 Jan 25
On 18/1 Amber Valley Vineyard hosted a LHAP hands-on pruning course aimed at educating both beginner and experienced gardeners and vineyard workers about the essential practice of pruning. The session focused on the significance of pruning in maintaining plant health, encouraging better yields, and enhancing the overall aesthetics of the vineyard.

Reasons for Pruning
The course began with a discussion of the reasons why pruning is essential. Participants learned that pruning helps manage the shape and size of plants, removes dead or diseased wood, and promotes healthier growth by allowing better airflow and sunlight penetration. The importance of pruning for apples was particularly emphasized, explaining how it can influence both the quantity and quality of the harvest.

Participant Needs and Objectives
Each participant was invited to share their reasons for attending the course, as well as their specific needs and areas of interest. Some were looking to improve their skills for personal gardening, while others were orchard workers eager to hone their knowledge for professional purposes. This dialogue helped tailor the session to address the diverse needs of the group, ensuring that everyone left with practical insights they could apply to their own pruning activities.

Hands-On Demonstrations
The group then moved on to the practical portion of the course, where our experienced instructors demonstrated various pruning techniques on apple trees. The demonstrations covered key aspects of pruning, including how to identify the best areas to cut, the tools to use, and the timing for each type of pruning. Participants were encouraged to ask questions as the demonstrations took place to ensure a clear understanding of the methods.

Reflection and Discussion
After the demonstrations, participants were invited to share their thoughts and reflections on what they had just observed. They discussed why certain techniques were preferred over others and how these methods could be adapted to suit different trees, needs or situations. This open dialogue allowed everyone to voice their concerns, ask further questions, and benefit from the collective wisdom of the group.

Practical Experience
To wrap up the day, participants were given the opportunity to try their hand at pruning on other trees around the orchard. Guided by the instructors, they were able to apply what they had learned in real-time, practicing their new skills on different varieties of plants. This hands-on experience helped reinforce the concepts covered during the course and gave participants the confidence to carry out pruning tasks independently.

Overall, the pruning course at Amber Valley Vineyard was a valuable opportunity for participants to enhance their pruning knowledge and skills, whether for personal or professional use. By the end of the day, everyone walked away with a deeper understanding of how to care for their plants effectively, equipped with the tools and confidence to prune successfully.

Mel

20 Jan 25

ORCHARD PRUNING SESSION, COTESBACH HALL, 18 Jan 25
Another informal pruning day tidying up the apple trees at Cotesbach. We had quite a small group for what turned out to be the first of two sessions; there will be a follow-up in about a fortnight. Many thanks to everyone who helped. We worked mainly on a section of the younger trees; canker seems to have been a bit more severe this year. Kidd's Orange needed plenty of attention with a knife, and there was also some on the Ellison's Orange, which is usually fairly immune. The excess rain last year can't have helped.

The orchard has some interesting trees - Leicestershire varities (Prince Charles, Annie Elizabeth, Langton Nonesuch), heritage varieties (Court de Wick, Ribston, Kidd's Orange, Ellison's, Laxton's Fortune), along with pears, plums, a medlar and a very old Martin's Custard. The trees are now well-shaped and we carried out maintenance pruning only. (Although I was involved as a volunteer, this was not a LHAP event - ND)

Many thanks to Sophy for an enjoyable day and for preparing a delicious lunch.

I've put a few snaps below. Click on the thumbnails for bigger pictures.

... ...
...

20 Jan 25

Back to top