As our holiday glamping site begins to bed in and mature a bit we have been focusing on one of our main plans here at Bracken Farm, rewilding the land we acquired in 2021, developing the site and the natural habitat around us.
Historically the land had been used to grow Sugar Beet on an annual basis, but since taking ownership it has been grass seeded with a meadow mix, work has been carried out improving the hedgerow condition, the 60 tree-strong Apple Orchard has been planted along with some young Willow whips in choice places and the 4 bee hives are humming away nicely down near the recently establish large composting area.
We are now due to take a much larger step towards one of our environmental goals by successfully applying for one of the woodland creation grants available in our area. Working with the associated community forest scheme we are in the final stages of a project to bring a large number of young native trees onto the site with a view to creating a small wood on the land.
We are also tripling the size of our orchard, taking it to 180 trees with an expansion of our Cider Apple varieties as well as other fruit trees as well. As these trees mature and begin to produce fruit on a decent level we have plans for community orchard apple picking days, fresh apple juice pressing and of course continuing our Cider making plans.
We know it will take a few years for these newly arriving trees to grow and mature but with a long term view in mind we hope to create a really special area for guests and visitors to site for many years to come.