The Urban Orchard Project is a pioneering charity, dedicated to creating skilled communities to plant, care for and harvest fruit trees, connecting urban communities and increasing access to fruit. The charity started in 2009 and was born out of a realisation that there was a huge appetite for growing fruit in urban areas but no one organisation which was able to provide this. We are the only organisation solely dedicated to the rejuvenation, harvesting and growing of orchards in urban areas in the UK and are recognised as urban orchard experts both in the UK and abroad.
Our purpose is to create and restore community orchards, helping communities grow food locally, increasing access to fresh fruit, enhancing urban green spaces and creating cities with a high quality of life for inhabitants, and through our project work we bring communities together. We work with people from all walks of life, with a specific focus on people living in deprived areas identified as "food deserts" - areas with limited access to healthy food and with people at the margins of society where we can make the biggest difference.
We aim to create lush cities swathed in fruit and nut trees and we work in partnership with communities to plant, manage, restore and harvest orchards in urban areas; helping us all to rediscover the pleasure of eating home-grown fruit. This work also has lasting benefits for wildlife and biodiversity and improves local community greenspaces.
• Planting new community orchards in housing estates, schools, parks, universities, prisons, hospitals and other community spaces. We work intensively with grass-root communities associated with each site and provide on-going training and support. This approach fosters self-reliance in our community groups and ensures the orchards are sustainable both for the trees and within the community.
• Training people in orchard management and fruit processing skills covering fruit tree planting, maintenance, grafting, pruning, harvesting and preserving, apple identification, organic pest and disease control.
• Encouraging heritage and community activities around orchards and the eating of fruit through orchard folklore and celebration, processing and preservation of fruit. These activities turn orchards into focal points for community life, activity and celebration.
• Restoring traditional orchards - to turn them back into productivity, working in partnership with local community groups to train people and restore the orchards into valuable community resources.
• Harvesting fruit - we harvest unwanted fruit from orchards and experiment with how community orchard produce can be brought to market.
