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Our Orchard

Trinity reflects our philosophy and practice: holistic orchard restoration, harvest, and the crafting of our pure orchard products, which then in turn embody the substance, essence and nature of the orchard.

Our 110 year old heritage orchard is situated in Histon, near the city of Cambridge in England, and is part of Natural England Higher Level Stewardship Scheme for Biodiversity.

Bringing nature back to life

Our focus is on producing a diverse range of premium products utilising the renewable resources of our orchard on a sustainable basis, sharing the orchard’s bounty with its environment, through the encouragement of Bio-Diversity, on a low carbon platform of good practice by:

  • Working in harmony with the seasons.
  • Creating log piles to encourage invertebrates and amphibians.
  • Standing deadwood is untampered with wherever safe to do so.
  • Leaving corridors of scrub and trees in their wild form, along with boundary hedgerows, so as to provide valuable habitat for wildlife.
  • We do not use herbicides, pesticides, or external fertilizers.
  • There is no tilling of the land.
  • Low soil compaction
  • Natural waste from fruit and wood processing is returned to the orchard floor as nutrients and mulch
  • Sharing the orchard’s bounty with its natural residents
bee and apple blossom

Harmony with nature

Glades of grasses, weeds and flowers are left uncut from March until late July and now we have:

  • A dramatic increase in flora and fauna, thus supporting larger numbers of wild birds: robins, sparrows, finches, pheasants, woodpeckers, rabbits, deer, foxes
  • Bees, butterflies, dragonflies and fungi
apple blossom

Our history

The orchard had been left to go derelict for over forty years.

  • Although 10.54 acres in size, one could not see a single apple tree, as they were smothered in bramble, dog rose, scrub, weeds and wild apple.
  • Seven years later, we are still clearing scrub to release our heritage fruit trees for restoration.
  • With a few acres still to do, that have yet to be set foot in.

Restored apple trees

Semi-pruned standard apple trees.

The fruit bearing canopy has been left mainly intact.

  • The low horizontal branches, which may cause the trunk to split, have been removed.
  • Harvesting is very much a competition with the wildlife, but there is plenty to go round.

The advantages of semi-pruning:

  • The tree is not shocked.
  • There are no fruit loss years.

Earth

Natural decomposition of wood enriching the earth floor of the orchard.

Your Enquiry

Call us on 07540 619225, email sales@trinityorchards.co.uk, or fill in the form below.