Dundee - Scotland's Orchard City

Dundee is undergoing huge changes culturally and socially. To younger generations, berry or tattie picking may be an alien concept, but the practice was once a key part of seasonal life locally as well as across Scotland. The area has an existing connection to orchards — which originated in the Carse of Gowrie around 800 years ago as part of farms and granges owned by monasteries — and you have a rich heritage of food cultivation upon which to build.

 Slessor Gardens is where Dundee Urban Orchard (also known as DUO) is encouraging everyone to forage in their edible garden and orchard – for free. Anyone can come here and enjoy the herbs and fruit free of charge. The small-scale orchard is one of 25 across the city, all planted by DUO in a project which began three years ago. The idea behind the project is to raise awareness of “food sustainability” and “food justice”.

“Food poverty is a huge issue in Dundee,” explains Jonathan, as he tends an apple tree, sporting stunning pink and white blossom. “In an ideal world, there would be no food banks; there’d be more community gardens and orchards like this, so we’re doing what we can to make changes and bring awareness to these problems...we’re trying to support the social and emotional well-being in the city by offering a celebratory response to the local and global problem of food poverty. It’s an open invitation to everyone to come here and enjoy the space and when the fruit is ripe, to harvest and eat the produce.”

Three of DUO’s orchards supply fruit and vegetables to food banks, including the Giving Garden project at Menzieshill Parish Church, which grows lots of vegetables and has eight apple trees. Other sites DUO work with include Ninewells Community Garden, Maxwell Community Garden, Camperdown Wildlife Garden and the “Art-Science Orchard” linking the DCA and Dundee Science Centre.

“A large proportion of the food available in Dundee has travelled long distances and is purchased in packaged or processed form from supermarket shelves,” says DUO co-founder Sarah Gittins , “When we lose our connection to food, we lose a sense of what sustains us and this effects our care for one another and the planet.”