The apples of his eye

Richard Bradbury visits Chiltern Heritage Orchards

- Lindsay Engers

Lindsay Engers is a man on a mission, which he describes succinctly on the website of his brainchild, Chiltern Heritage Orchards: 'Organic Heritage Fruits Grown Sustainably'. I meet him in the orchard on a slightly gloomy summer day and his infectious knowledge and enthusiasm soon make me forget the indifferent weather.

I ask him what first inspired him to create the orchard. He tells me the seed was almost certainly sown when he was growing up - a mixture of his parents’ influence and ‘being surrounded by abandoned cherry orchards.’ He has, he says, always loved growing food, and this interest led him to study horticulture at Reading University. Since then, he’s worked in various related areas, such as horticultural retailing, landscape and garden design and construction, and as a lecturer on Royal Horticultural Society courses. He also looks after the National Citrus Collection.

When working on a garden near St Leonards, between Chesham and Wendover, he mentioned his ambition to create an orchard, and his client posted an appeal for a suitable plot of land on the local intranet. A nearby landowner responded, and before long Lindsay had a site of nearly three quarters of an acre at his disposal.

MANY VARIETIES DATE BACK TO THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD