MARCHER APPLE NETWORK
RHWYDWAITH AFALAU'R GORORAU

Newsletter 2003

Every year MAN members receive a free newsletter which is a mine of information and which covers many interesting topics. The following is a digest of the 2003 newsletter.

• Chairman's review of the year and the AGM report from the meeting at Dingestow, Monmouth.
• The year's events on the Welsh side of the border, including information on Glasu, a grant awarding body for Powis, the Apple Day at Penlanole, the Royal Welsh Smallholder Weekend and the Museum of Old Varieties of Welsh Apple Trees.
• Orchard Gleanings. Mike Porter's regular and informative review of apples and orchards in the border counties. He reflects on the delights of keeping an orchard (seeing a red kite hunting, watching green woodpeckers, listening to song thrushes, as well as the usual things) and the anguish of seeing one's crop laid waste (by crows, jays and grey squirrels) in addition to the ravages of pests and diseases that apple trees are prone to. Fruit production-v-biodiversity, a difficult one.
• News of MAN's orchards at Tredomen Court, Croft Pendarren, Westhope, Donnington, and Lower Ffordd-Fawr in addition to news from the Hereford Nature Trusts orchard at Tupsley and the apples at Unity Gardens, Hereford.
• MAN maintains close contact with other similar groups and we have news from the Cheshire Orchard Project, the Irish Seed Saver Association, the Gloucestershire Orchard Group, the Northern Fruit Group, The Staffordshire Orchard Initiative, the Blue Remembered Hills Project and the National Orchard Forum.
• Crime and Apples. Peter Austerfield reviews 'The Garden' by Gillian Linscott, an award winning crime writer.
• A review of the activities of the recently formed Cider Apple and Perry Pear subgroup by Richard Cheshire.
• A report from the British Beekeepers Convention by Tom Froggat
• From our correspondents, including better news of Sarah Juniper's orchard (see Newsletter number eight).
• Our literary corner, cookery corner and book reviews.
• Sale of graftwood and budwood, pruning courses and where to buy single variety organic apple juices, fruit trees (especially Welsh and border county varieties) and fruit tree kits.
• MAN library additions including facsimile editions of Robert Hogg's, The Fruit Manual, 1884 and Muriel Smith's National Apple Register, 1971.
• Wanted by MAN. Help (of all kinds), apples and more apples!
• The MAN website, one year on and growing thanks to our webmaster, Richard Wheeler.
• Subscriptions and membership.

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You can obtain your free copy of the newsletter by becoming a member of MAN. Here are details of Membership. Alternatively newsletters are available by payment of £2.00 plus 50p postage and packing - download an order form as a Word document (6KB) or as a PDF (4KB).