25. – 27. APRIL 2025

Orchards everywhere!

Focus 2025: orchard picnic

Hochstamm Deutschland e.V. is the cultural carrier

Holiday

The Orchard Day in Europe - The holiday of orchard cultivation

364 days and one public holiday. Europe-wide. Every year on the last Friday in April and the following weekend, we celebrate the blossoming orchards, the delicacies, the cultural heritage and the diversity throughout Europe! Come and enjoy orchards - at home, on an excursion or on vacation. On the programme:
- Product tastings,
- Festivals,
- Meadow tours,
- Info evenings,
- Photo competitions,
- Online offers and much more.

Focus 2025: orchard picnic
2025 we invite you to experience the orchard meadow with a cosy picnic under blossoming trees.

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Celebrate with us...

Large fruit trees of many species and varieties, for example apple, walnut or olive trees, take root in the meadows in rows and at irregular intervals. A high number of partly endangered animal and plant species are at home there.

The meadows are a cultural landscape created by man and only survive through cultivation. Our traditional knowledge of tree care, further processing of the fruit and much more is the fertile soil of orchard cultivation. This is why orchard cultivation is listed as an intangible cultural heritage by the German UNESCO Commission.

In many places in Europe, orchard meadows characterize entire natural and cultural landscapes, but the population of fruit trees is dwindling. Orchard Day shines the spotlight on the aesthetics of flowering orchards and the delicious products created from the fruit.

 

Inspiration

Review of the Orchard Day 2024

Groups, companies, associations, private individuals - they all invite guests to the orchard meadow, the winery or the artist's studio. The Orchard Day ensures that proud orchards, proud people and proud products are publicised. We would like to thank the 240 hosts and all those who helped out. Here is an insight into the 2024 events.

Hosts

All over Europe there are people with a great passion for orchards. On the European Orchard Day, we show this to everyone. With every event, we inspire enthusiasm for our work, the wonderful meadows and the delicious products.

Do you want to be a host or hostess yourself? Share your passion with us and all our guests. Show us your orchard - the meadow, the products, the trees, the work, the animals, the love, the culture, the technology.

We make the orchard heroes famous and organise appreciation. Hosts automatically receive free advertising materials (flyers, posters, drink coasters). From the beginning of 2025, it will again be possible to enter events on our map.

The motto for 2025 is "Orchard Picnic". We are combining the beautiful landscape with enjoyment. We invite all hosts to organise an orchard picnic - whether in a small circle or open to everyone. Click here for instructions (link to the document "Example activities").

10 good reasons

Crossword puzzles, memory, language apps - no longer relevant. One meadow, 50 varieties: Anyone who remembers these names is a memory master and spelling artist at the same time. We write all variety titles correctly and in many different languages - from the Schiennägelesbirne to the Oullins Reneklode to the Peasgood Sondergleichen. And: Who can claim to know Prince Albrecht and Kaiser Wilhelm face to face?

Blossoming cherry trees, a starry sky above a large pear tree, the soft chirping of nightingales - we know the perfect location for a first date. It's hard for your sweetheart to resist the incomparable atmosphere of an orchard. And, best of all: "Romance" is guaranteed all year round here. Also in winter one or even several mistletoe branches can be found in the branches of the old apple trees. In best case, only one....

Watching series for hours, drinking beer with friends, surfing for the latest trends - yes, all of this demonstrates endurance. But it's hardly enough for a powerful application. We offer the solution: Managing an orchard offers the best qualifications to convince the future boss. Want a selection? Tenacity (over generations), frustration tolerance (think of the cider fruit prices), toughness (anyone who cuts eight trees in one day knows what we're talking about), ability to work in a team (clash of views from grandma, grandpa, mother, uncle, neighbor,...), analytical skills (where did the apple get the funny dents from?)

What does the orchard offer that the beach do not: Nice food, romantic sights and activity program for young and old directly in front of the house - all in one place. This insider tip provides the best wellness and adventure program at the best price-performance ratio, away from all the annoying other vacationers. This is how sustainable travel works: Unpack your picnic basket, grab some local orchard apple juice, invite friends to hang out and enjoy.

We like to be thrifty. Who needs an expensive membership in a gym, a Zumba class or a handball club? The best and most balanced workout for abdomen, legs and the rest of our body is offered free of charge in the orchard - all year round and without prying eyes. For example, cutting trees strengthens arm muscles, balance and coordination. Even the healthy snack in between can be achieved via an athletic exercise.

Fridays for Future? We dare to step from the street into the meadow - and have been doing so for generations. We protect the climate through concrete action without much media attention. In doing so, we reduce energy consumption (no time for mobile phones and tablets - and yes, sometimes no internet either), mainly eat vegan (apart from the worm in the apple) or regional (the roast lamb is delicious) and drive sustainably at reduced speed (the old tractor only achieves 15 miles per hour) and recycle (the branch refuse makes the best wood chips for heating).

Well, sometimes we just need a reason to have a little self-pity. The best one is provided by managing an orchard. Inveterate orchardists are well aware of the stress reduction provided by a cleansing fit of anger when looking at cider fruit prices, political ungenerousness, and the threat of new buildings. As a result, orchardists strengthen their relatives' empathic skills in addition to their own frustration tolerance. But the best thing is: We are in charge - we have the opportunity to change things. Orchard meadows offer the best playground to become active ourselves.

We know a place where tall and tiny, old and young, with and without a migration background, green and brown, veteran and newcomer come together and live together without conflict. Anyone who is now imagining a utopian futuristic world has not yet been to the orchard. Practiced integration is the daily routine here, whether among trees, cultivators, or the insect world. The orchard meadow brings together.

In times of great loneliness, we know an effective antidote: pick up a shovel, loppers or a cider jar together. Some work needs many hands. Being a lone wolf is possible (and sometimes quite pleasant), but not very realistic. Everyone gets involved: in the family, in numerous orchard associations, initiatives, among neighbors.

The best finishes: THE feeling. Every orchard hero feels it. Actually, it can't be explained, but here's an attempt: The mixture of tradition, craftsmanship, technology, nature, community, culture, seasons, colors, fruits, scents....
Not convinced yet? Just give it a try. We guarantee, the recipe works without bad side effects. Always!


The Organisers

Austria
Europe
Germany
United Kingdom

Hochstamm Deutschland e.V. fills the day with blossoming life. We are actively supported by ARGE Streuobst, BirdLife Europe and the UK Orchard Network.

Contact

Geschäftsstelle Tag der Streuobstwiese c/o Geschäftsstelle Hochstamm Deutschland e. V.

Hannes Bürckmann

Phone: +49 (0) 7936 99 05 20

kontakt@hochstamm-deutschland.de

Sophia Philipp

Phone: +49 (0) 173 3912067

kontakt@hochstamm-deutschland.de

Hochstamm Deutschland e.V. (non-profit)
Niedenbach 13
72229 Rohrdorf

Represented by the Board of Directors:
Martina Hörmann, Ulfried Miller, Dieter Popp, Leander Jung-Lüdemann

Cover Photos: Shutterstock, Rudolf Schneider, Andrea Letsch, Manfred Wolf, Angela Hammer