About Us – Brendon Orchards Cooperative

The Brendon Orchards Story

In 2012 we began to operate from The Greenhouse in the centre of Wiveliscombe which is now our HQ for community juicing activity and storage.

Funding too has enabled us to expand our equipment base to offer more and more juicing opportunities.

As an established cooperative we are a member-led organisation with our membership now over 300

We are managed by a small committee and employ an Apple Press Manager to coordinate the growing number of hires of our equipment in the harvest season.

Volunteering opportunities (in exchange for juice) include picking, juicing, working with groups and serving on our stalls.

Pressing day at Port Eliot — Set up ready for a pressing day with a school group at Port Eliot near Saltash in Cornwall in Oct 2019

Brendon Orchards was set up in 2007 to make the most of the glorious apple harvest in our locality – and bring together young and older people, farmers and foragers, people with whole orchards and those with just one tree to do that.

Our motivation was to stop the tragic waste of apples, to find ways to bring them to benefit our physical, emotional and community health and to encourage an awareness of the value of local produce and cutting down food miles. Something about spreading the sense of just how special the orchards of Somerset are too.

Street Fair 2019 — *Stall at Wiveliscombe Street Fair, 2019*

We have wonderful relationships with orchard owners who allow our crews to come in and relieve them of their harvests in exchange for some juice for themselves. This juice we can then sell on local markets to keep our services affordable and where it’s great to do further outreach and marketing.

Joint-ventures with local schools and young people’s organisations encourage fun in nature while learning how food and drink can be produced sustainably – from seed to plate or cup. There’s quite a bit of experiential biology, physics, chemistry and ecology in the mix too.

We provide training in not only juicing and the health and safety around it but in orchard management too and our pruning courses have built up an excellent reputation.

The juice we make ourselves as a coop is normally available for purchase at the annual Wiveliscombe Street Fair and all proceeds from these juice sales are re-invested back into the Cooperative to further our aims.

” The flavour of your apple juice is divine! I was lucky enough to enjoy a blend of Red Devil and Adams Pearmain and it was out of this world – vibrant, fresh and delicious. You’ve certainly created some magic in those bottles! “

Our mission is simple, we aim to:

- Provide ways for the community to make its own produce from locally grown fruit, thereby preventing wastage and supporting the community by linking people and groups with surplus fruit
- Provide training on juicing, orchard management and fruit usage, and to maximise production from such fruit
- Increase the economic sustainability of the local area and reduce food miles by creating high quality local products which will be available locally.
- Gather knowledge of where local orchards and individual trees are, their history and varieties.
- Hold events such as apple days, wassailing and blossom picnics.
- Work with schools providing fun, educational juicing days.
- Demonstrate the value to those with learning or mental health issues of being in nature and engaging in valuable social and economic activity.

Update for 2023

The Brendon Orchards Cooperative are delighted to have been awarded funding to help afford the purchase of our home at the Greenhouse, we have previously been based here as tenants. This means we are here to stay! We acknowledge the generous support of the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing for the match funding

Here in 2025 we are continually evolving the services we offer. We currently serve 475 members and between us all make about 20,000 litres of pure juice a year and 500 litres of cider and cider vinegar.

We offer fun events and experiences throughout the year – not just during the autumn “apple season” – for all ages to educate and inspire.

The Brendon Orchards Story

Our mission is simple, we aim to:

Update for 2023

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