Oakbrook Orchard Community Interest Company

Context and purpose Oakbrook Orchard is a volunteer run company in the process of establishing a new orchard at Oakbrook Farm, with the intention of operating a Community Supported Agriculture system to supply a seasonal share of locally grown fruit to local people. The land we farm is community owned and a public footpath runs through the field where our trees are planted. The project was started by Jessie in 2019, operating as a sole trader from 2020 onwards. Oakbrook Orchard was registered as a CIC in early January 2024, with Jessie as the sole registered director. All the assets of the sole trader business were transferred to the CIC when it was formed. Leigh and Hester were invited to become directors soon after the company was formed, and started attending meetings in May 2024. They each formally registered as directors in January 2025. The stated aim of Oakbrook Orchard Community Interest Company is to benefit the community by producing food and flowers with and for local people, using agroecological methods. Activity, successes and challenges This year we have planted and guarded an additional 70 trees in the orchard, bringing the total number of trees in the orchard to around 175, close to our ultimate planned total of 200 trees. It has been very satisfying, as well as convenient, to be able to use trees that we have grafted ourselves in our onsite nursery to extend the orchard. We have continued to run monthly volunteer work parties to carry out seasonal tasks including mowing, mulching, pruning, planting and guarding trees. Thanks to collaboration with landlord Oakbrook Community Farm and co-tenant Stroud Micro Dairy, we were able to erect single strand steel wire fencing around each tree row to protect the trees from grazing cattle. We started using a new form of tree guard of our own design, which offers benefits both in terms of easier maintenance and cost savings. We did not have enough labour to care for the trees as well as we would have liked, and some trees suffered from vole damage to their bark. However, we only lost one or two trees over the year. Some of our volunteers are now gaining in skills and experience, meaning that we can be more productive and effective with the limited labour available. We also benefited from a regular volunteer tree planting group from Stroud Valleys Project who visited us for a day and helped to plant at least 20 of the additional trees put in during the year. As in previous years, we ran a seasonal daffodil share for a few weeks in the spring. This turned out to be quite stressful; in the wet spring the daffodils suffered unprecedented slug damage and some of the bulbs planted the previous year just didn’t come up. We were grateful for the support and understanding from our customers and experienced first hand the benefits of a Community Supported Agriculture system. Thanks to funding from the Tree Council, secured in collaboration with Oakbrook Farm and our co-tenants, we were able to run two scything workshops during the summer, and purchase additional scythes for use by our volunteer team. Tree Council funding also covered the costs of some tree guards used during the year. More tools, including the scythes, and some proper wooden hay rakes purchased this year, meant that we could work more effectively and or host more volunteers. As well as the scything workshops and monthly work parties, we ran a free and well received farm tour as part of the national Agroforestry Open Weekend. We also held our first ever public wassail event in early January 2025, which was very well attended. We hope to make this an annual event. Despite some hopeful signs, we still did not have a written lease with Oakbrook Farm. Whilst this does potentially leave us vulnerable, and we do want to secure a written lease, our relationship with the farm and other tenants remains positive, and as a result of not having a lease, we do currently benefit from not paying any rent. We continued to be fully biodynamic and organic certified by the BDA, under the umbrella of Oakbrook Farm.