After each visit to an orchard, the children wrote poetry and made sketches that have been mounted on four boards in each school, one for each time of the year - so altogether the project has produced twenty boards.

Some of the children already knew a little about the orchards, perhaps because their parents had taken them there. But a lot of them had never been, even though it was only a short walk from their school to the orchard, and now a link has been made that will be carried on. They were fascinated to see the processes, and one unexpected result of the project is that quite a few of the children have now got quite a taste for apples, and have taken a healthy interest in eating more fruit.

We haven’t done the mapping part of the project yet. James has been working with local archive offices to collect maps showing where the orchards are, and have been. We hope the maps will go on a CD, and perhaps even on a website where schoolchildren can explore the maps to find their own local orchards.

There are plans for a series of exhibitions, displaying the poetry and artwork on boards in the schools themselves, and one big exhibition in May/June 2005 in Ilminster that will include pictures taken by a local photographer to record the project.

As well as sorting out paperwork of claims and reports, I’ve had a chance to have some “hands-on” involvement in the project. I joined a group on one visit to a little orchard in the parish of Kingsbury Episcopi that was managed by just one man who uses really old hand machinery to press his apples which was lovely because there were sheep and chickens in the orchard who all came to see what was going on.

And we compared that with one that is very close by, a Julian Templey orchard which has mechanical pressing and processing on quite a big scale, and also a small distillery which makes cider brandy.

I’ve also done a bit of painting work in the classrooms, and it’s been fascinating to see how Kate organises the displays of work on the boards, what should go where and how the colours work together.

The project has focused mainly on education in the schools, but it has raised awareness of the apple industry with adults too, through families and neighbours connected with the schools. Some of the adults have helped by coming along on visits, helping with the painting, or helping to supervise the visits.