Sharing in their fruitful knowledge
From the orchards of Lancashire to the quiet coast of Riverton, Phil Rainford has travelled a long way for the Riverton Heritage Harvest Festival.
Rainford is a heritage fruit enthusiast and member of the Northern Fruit Group in England, and will give presentations on the heritage fruit orchards of his homeland at the festival during the weekend.
Rainford said he has known festival organiser Robyn Guyton for about five years and has worked with her on identifying heritage fruit varieties.
It was through the sister of a good friend who lives in Southland that Rainford found out about the work the Guytons were doing with heritage fruit, a passion Rainford shares.
The Guytons had been doing the same thing the orchard groups in United Kingdom had been doing, which was to preserve heritage fruit varieties of the past, Rainford said.
In Lancashire, there were over 400 varieties of heritage fruit which groups had managed to identify using historical records and DNA testing.
These fruits of years past could prove extremely valuable in future because of their genetic qualities, Rainford said.
‘‘Members of our group have managed to rediscover varieties and have them authenticated.’’
One discovery which Rainford found fascinating was that an apple variety Proctor’s Seedling had been imported into New Zealand in the early 1900s.
Rainford said Proctor’s Seedling was only found in the Lancashire County and nowhere else in the UK, but Robyn Guyton had found a New Zealand seed catalogue from 1907 advertising seedlings for sale.
Southland had many fruits from the early 1800s that had obviously come from Europe and the United States, some of which were now missing from their country of origin, Rainford said.
Robyn Guyton had sent many photos of fruit to Rainford in the hopes he might be able to identify them, however Rainford’s contacts in Britain had not managed to identify any, he said.
Rainford would giving presentations during the heritage festival about about the ways in which orchard groups in the UK operated.
‘‘I’m going to talk about one or two varieties we have rescued and the story behind them.’’