Town goes green to its core
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The Robinson brothers from Milltown - Tom-Joe, Michael, and Charlie - with their nephew, Thomas Small, who was recently ordained a priest. Fr Small, from Belturbet, became the first priest to be ordained locally since Laragh native Séan Maguire in June 2012, and eight years before that again, when Fr Ultan McGoohan was ordained (2004). The ordination took place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Belturbet back in September.Already nationally recognised for its eco-friendly efforts to date, the town of Belturbet is launching yet another really ‘a-peeling’ new green initiative.
The so-called ‘Virtual Orchard’ project is a new enterprise developed by Belturbet Zero Waste (BZW), who are deeply rooted in the process of sourcing almost 100 one-year-old organically grown heritage apple trees.
To be planted by volunteer ‘tree-keeper’ in home gardens locally, the trees are being sourced from Irish Seed Savers Association in Co Clare, a non-profit charity set-up in 1991 to save, preserve Ireland’s most cherished heritage and heirloom vegetable seeds, potatoes, grains and fruits.
To further boost the project, BZW attained funding, enough to offer the local tree adopters a 25% discount, with a maximum of five per person.
BZW, which won best ‘Campaigner’ at the 2019 Spark Change Awards and ‘Best Waste Management Programme’ at the All Ireland Community and Council Awards 2020, only posted about the scheme on social media towards the end of last month.
They were thrilled with the response. Even before the month ended, they had found new homes for all the trees ordered.
Aside from the initial fee, the only thing BZW is asking the tree-keepers to do is retain an active log of their planting progress, sharing updates every six months or so, the results of which will be posted online with photos to help ripen the virtual element of the project.
An additional local angle to this appley-ever-after story is that some of the unique heritage apple tree varieties sourced are those once saved from potential oblivion by the late Charles Robinson.
The Robinson brothers from Milltown- Charles, Tom-Joe and Michael - were among the finest furniture craftsmen of a generation, their work lauded the world over.
But aside from their trade, each were passionate about conservation, none more so than ‘Charlie’, as he was better known.
Before his death in 2008, Charlie was known to travel the length and breadth of the Border region specifically searching out unique but endangered species of indigenous plants and trees, hoping that one day they could be saved for future generations to enjoy.
The new apple trees are expected to arrive in the picturesque Erneside town in the next week or so.
Barry Wilson of BZW told The Anglo-Celt that, if the aftercare of the trees is successful going into 2021, the local group hopes to roll-out the scheme further in the coming years.
After BZW launched in 2019 with a series of staggered goals, the first of which was to cut down on plastic waste use in the town, Mr Wilson says the group recalibrated to see if what they are doing could be made even more relevant.
“Despite what we’ve achieved already, we’re very much still only at the beginning of our BZW journey. The success of BZW relies on maximum community participation and the ‘Virtual Orchard’ is another idea, which is a little bit different, but we hope will capture the imagination.”
Ignoring the fact that most people’s interpretation of an orchard is a group of apple trees situated in single location, BZW have taken the concept to cover the entire town where possible.
“The idea would be trees growing in individual gardens or even in estates, where there are green spaces available, to build around those. We have sourced 95 heritage apple varieties as part of the first tranche, but believe me, we want to grow this further,” says Barry, who heaped praise on his fellow BZW volunteers including Sharon Brennan-McGovern who manages the social media side of things for the group.
Aside from simply growing the trees, BZW will be pressing the message that it is a lot more carbon friendly to produce food closer to home, whether that’s apples or other fruits and vegetables.
Additionally Barry suggests that Belturbet, once famed for its ‘Lady of the Erne’ festival, could advance the ‘Virtual Orchard’ to incorporate and promote new tourism ideas.
“We’ve very conscious about just how far we could take this. The idea of promoting a harvest festival is something we’ve talked about certainly. It’s a few years off yet, but there’s no reason why not... It’d be a great way of putting Belturbet on the map.