What is TopFruit?
18 September 2023In August 2023, two abandoned allotment plots with mature fruit trees and bushes in Buckinghamshire were repurposed for the "Grow to Give" initiative, which provides excess locally grown produce to food banks and reduces food waste. The ongoing need for such donations remains high due tofood poverty and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. The TopFruit project manages these allotments with a focus on harvesting fruit for local food charities. The initiative invites community involvement through active volunteering or financial support, offering an opprotunity to assist those in difficulty by working together as a community.
Pruning and planting
Spring us definitely here on the TopFruit allotment now. A rather inconspicuous bush has turned out to be a blueberry now it’s starting to grow again. March is a great month for planting small bushes and shrubs so several gooseberry…
Redcurrants revealed
Clearing the undergrowth this week revealed these three redcurrant bushes (variety Laxtons No. 1 according to a surviving label on one bush). As with everything on this site, planted far too close together! For now they have been weeded, pruned…
Pruning & top dressing
The winter pruning is well under way and should be done by the end of February. Here is one of the greengage trees having had a huge amount of dead wood cut out and top dressed with fertiliser and horse…
Congestion
Now that the leaves have all dropped and the undergrowth is clearing we can now see the cause of some of the problems seen in the summer. The dense canopy of some of the trees is either due to self-seeded…
Starting the winter clearing
I joined John and Sarah today to make a start on clearing the scrubby growth at the bottom end of the Top Fruit plots. Lots of bramble and an overgrown privet hedge were removed leaving 4 trees better exposed for…
Braeburns picked on an October evening
This evening we picked about 8 kg of good quality Braeburn apples to be shipped off to GrowToGive tomorrow morning . We are nearly at the end of these and with the TopFruit harvest for this year. Now the hard…
Braeburn Apple harvest
Yesterday we picked about 6kg of good Braeburn apples from the Top Fruit plots and these are heading to GrowtoGive today. There will be more to come next week as well. We haven’t absolutely identified this tree as a Braeburn…
Another 8kg Spartan apples picked
We finished picking the Spartan apples today and shipped off another 8kg to GrowToGive. We have just the one Spartan apple tree on the Top Fruit plot. The ‘Spartan’ is notable for being the first new breed of apple produced…
Getting involved
Become a volunteer TopFruit is seeking volunteers who will contribute skills, time & maybe money (or all three!) to meet the cost of renting the two plots and also the cost of maintaining, improving and maybe re-planting the remaining space…
