Manmade Eden - a history of Orchards

'Manmade Eden', a history of orchards

The West Country is famed for its orchards, but why are they here? As
the campaign to save and celebrate English orchards gathers momentum,
this book explores their fascinating and - until now - neglected
history. Why is Glastonbury known as Avalon, the Isle of Apples? What
made Redstreak Cyder the most popular drink of the seventeenth
century? Who was Dr Ashmead, cultivator of the connoisseur's favourite
apple, Ashmead's Kernel? How did a Somerset vicar come to make cider
for Queen Victoria?This rich, wide-ranging book takes a long historic
look at changing fashions and fortunes - asking why thirteenth-century
monks and Edwardian landowners planted orchards, and why post-war
governments paid farmers to destroy them. The author argues that Apple
Day (October 21) should be made our national autumn holiday. He
examines the role of Common Ground, the National Trust and other
organisations in preserving and restoring orchards, and asks: what can
we do to make our orchards as profitable as they were in centuries
past?

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