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Operation Farm has launched an initiative to discover and plot the lost fruit trees of Stalybridge - and we need your help!

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Forming part of Tameside Council’s Sensing the Place programme and to help people reconnect with the town, the overall aim of the project is to encourage people to slow down, notice surroundings and find out a bit more about Stalybridge’s heritage and culture.  The programme, funded by Historic England, is a three-year cultural programme to foster a deeper connection with the town.

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If you have a fruit tree in your garden or allotment that you value or cherish, or have discovered any while out and about in the town and its surrounding countryside, Operation Farm wants to hear from you.  It could be old, a less common variety, provide you with lots of delicious fruit or just one that you have known for a long time. We are also interested in any trees in Stalybridge you know with surplus fruit. Simply head to operationfarm.org.uk/lost-trees  and plot the location of your tree.

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Established in 2009, Operation Farm is a small social enterprise based in Tameside. We use food, growing and cooking to improve the health and wellbeing of people in the borough.  Operation Farm has been involved in orchards since soon after it was formed; we helped to develop the community orchard in Hyde Park, Hyde and soon after that set up Abundance Tameside - a community harvesting project that makes use of surplus fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

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This project will complement the Abundance Tameside activities as, where any trees we are told about with fruit which goes unharvested, the fruit could be gathered instead at community picking sessions and pressed into juice for community events or pasteurised for storage.

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Excitingly, we'll be at Stalybridge Streetfest on Friday 8th July with samples of apple drinks and food to try. Look out for the Abundance Tameside stall and add a tree to our map to help us find Stalybridge's wonderful fruit trees!

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