Forgotten Orchards: Cornwall Duo Cultivates a Living Archive of Feral Apples

9 hours ago7 min read3 comments

In a quiet corner of Cornwall, a unique project is taking root, unearthing the deep connections between community, history, and the wild flora we often overlook. Local creatives William Arnold and James Fergusson are spearheading an initiative that resembles cultural archaeology more than traditional farming: they are planting an orchard devoted exclusively to 'feral' apples.These fruits are a world apart from the uniform, commercially-bred varieties found in grocery stores. They are the hardy offspring of casually discarded cores, springing up spontaneously in hedgerows, abandoned plots, and woodland fringes.Each tree is a genetic surprise and a living artifact of a forgotten meal from decades or even a century past. Arnold and Fergusson are cultivating a living library of accidental biodiversity, a collection of apples that no one deliberately planted but that grew from the seeds of human carelessness and natural resilience.Strolling through their young orchard is to observe a silent dialogue between humanity and nature; every uniquely shaped tree, sourced from a wild seedling, narrates a tale not of profit, but of chance and tenacious survival. It invites reflection on the anonymous individuals whose simple act of tossing an apple core from a car window or over a fence ultimately gave rise to a distinct cultivar now being carefully preserved.This endeavor challenges conventional notions of value in nature, urging us to see beyond the engineered perfection of industrial food production and to discover beauty in the unplanned, the wild, and the genuinely local. In a time of increasingly homogenized food systems, their work stands as a powerful testament to the idea that meaning and wonder often thrive in the margins, woven into the very fabric of the landscape, waiting for those with the patience to uncover them. It is a human-interest story in its purest form, exploring our innate desire to nurture the random and find significance in the spontaneous creations that surround us.

#feral apples

#orchard

#Cornwall

#food trends

#featured

#agriculture

#biodiversity

#art project

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