What started as a local, Bedford-based project to help our school children engage with their immediate environment and learn about a local heritage orchard is about to go national when Sue Miller (SFB convivium leader and UK Director) launches the project at The BBC Good Food Show in London 14th November.

On a national level, the project aims to create awareness of the UK’s heritage and community orchards and their fruit.  Slow Food UK plans to bring communities togther by creating a series of maps plotting where you can find your nearest  convivium, orchard and school to ensure that the knowledge of our heritage fruit is passed on to the next generation.

By recording where heritage trees exist it’s possible to identify where there is a need to re-establish forgotten varieties that are native to a particular region. So the first stage of the project is an invitation to visit the Slow Food UK website to record what you already know about your area. Once this information is gathered, Slow Food UK will work to protect existing heritage orchards and trees to ensure sustainability. They will work towards reintroducing local varieties to an area through a community orchard, school or garden which could result in the creation of new orchards to plant native varieties that may have been lost to a particular area.

Sue Miller says, “It is important to create awareness through education.  Engaging the community, and  especially children, is the key to bringing the importance of our food heritage to our homes. Through working with schools and young people we can reach families and connect them with our convivia and their local food heritage.  Jamie Oliver has proved through his Ministry of Food initiative that there is a need to “pass it on” within the community and this has never been more poignant in the protection of our food heritage. ”