Growing fruit in Suffolk
When George Hodgkinson began cultivating his dream of owning an orchard five years before he retired, he sought the advice of a professional Suffolk apple grower who was supplying the big supermarkets “Think small, think niche,” was the man’s advice. “This idea immediately sparked me,” says George, “because having been in a niche business myself, filling a niche appealed to me.” The day jobGeorge had been a shipping lawyer in the City of London for many years, but was tiring of the four hours commute to London and back each day, as well as the changing office culture. In December 2004, at the age of 60, George left his office for the last time. The niche he hoped to fill was the cultivation of neglected native Suffolk varieties of dessert apple, like St Edmund’s Pippin which first appeared in 1873. “It has a lovely flavour,” explains George, “but tends to go a bit soft, so you’ve got to pick it quite early and eat it quickly. From the point of view of a commercial grower those properties are not ideal.” George was “sort of brought up with apples.” He spent school summer holidays harvesting his mother’s orchard on the small family farm at Little Waldingfield, filling bushel boxes with the fruit. His father wondered if he might eventually take to farming but George was off to Oxford to read jurisprudence. “But of course, if you’re brought up in a farming environment,” he says, “there’s something in the genes.” Before his retirement, as a trial run, he planted a handful of apple trees in a dell in his garden in the shadow of the church at Monks Eleigh. Luckily a neighbour had a couple of fields to sell, four and a half acres on a south-facing slope. George bought them. As chairman of the local history group George knew from the old maps that it was likely there had been an orchard here in the 18th century. And an Orchard House still stands nearby. Success todayThe present orchard now consists of 1100 trees. He and his wife Sarah, their family and friends, harvest the fruit into the traditional bushel boxes of his childhood, selling to farm shops, and at farmers’ markets. “It was very satisfying when Sarah and I had our first stall,” he says, “to be selling old varieties, something I’d created in a sense, and people actually wanted to buy what I’d grown.” For some of his City colleagues the prospect of retirement consisted of playing golf four times a week instead of two. But George says he has a fairly strong work ethic. “I’m very lucky; I’m just enjoying my second career.” Written by Paul Barnes
This article was created: 14 July 2006.
This article was last edited: 14 November 2006.
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