This project would not have happened without funding from the LHI, and it has proved to be a very useful project for the area. LAMP has already been involved in two other LHI projects, focusing on Somerset's willow and peat-cutting industries.

The main driving force for the project has been James Crowden, who has a lot of background in Somerset apples and orchards and really wanted to help make people more aware of what’s going on around them. James came to LAMP with the idea of an educational project, and has co-ordinated the workshops and exhibitions with local artist Kate Lynch.

When we were preparing our application for a grant, the LHI team were very helpful in advising us about how to shape the project, and what James wanted to do fitted in well with the aims of the LHI scheme.

The money has paid for the skilled contributions from James and Kate, and also for all the materials. The LHI team have always been very approachable - for example, if our claims or quarterly reports have had to be late for some reason, they’ve been very accommodating and understanding about the situation.

At the beginning of the project, there was a meeting with all the orchard owners to work out what they thought it would be most useful for children to learn about. Then Kate and James approached lots of schools in the apple areas, with orchards or cider farms just down the road, and five schools chose to be involved.

With each class, James and Kate have visited the local cider farm at four different times during the year, so the children have seen the process through the seasons. First they saw the orchard full of blossom, then the picking and sorting of apples into baskets, and they’ve been there when the apples were being pressed for juice and for cider. At Charlton Orchards they are very good on pruning and grafting apple trees, so the children had an opportunity to learn how to do that.

They’ve also been involved in the wassail that happens in January/February time. A big one they went to recently was in Brent Knoll, one of the northern parishes in the levels and moors. The whole community get together and celebrate the season’s apples with music and a mummer’s play before banging out the evil spirits from the apple trees, making lots of noise, and there are fires and fireworks.