Last weekend, I was at Fruitcamp UK. This was an event that I had organised with the help of my friends Angie, Simon and Diana and it was set in a campsite in the village of Flagg in Derbyshire. This was not any usual campsite as it consisted of Yurts instead of tents or caravans. The Yurts were large enough for 5 people and had a wood burning fire inside.
The organisation took a good few months of preparation and we were lucky that Simon lived near a large fruit wholesaler and market in Leicester where he could get good bargains for the fruit. We mostly got bananas, mangoes and grapes with some apples and dates as additional fruit. We had a small amount of lettuce which in hindsight was not quite enough as it was disappearing fast by the second night!
The first night we got to know each other at an opening ceremony outside under the moonlight and hung out in the caravan where I and a few others were staying. That became the main communal space for the event and many great conversation were had there and friendships were forged.
We were lucky to avoid heavy rain and the next day Paul Miller also known as "Wu" gave an excellent Tai Chi class, while others went for a run and some did weight training and calisthenics with Simon. After this we set out for an easy walk on the Monsal Trail nearby. That night we had a Jive dancing class with Matthew Tolley which was great fun. After this we had a fire out under the moonlight and I played guitar and sang, providing some background music to more conversations on health and fruity living.
The following day, Duncan had set out a circuit for the runners to do a distance of their choosing, many choosing to do a half marathon myself Simon, Klaus and James did some tough circuit training within the horsebarn. Improvising with the equipment at hand we used horse jumping fences for hurdling and doing dips on. A more difficult hike was taken that day to Mam Tor, a local hill providing great views of the Peak District. On the way back some of us encountered a very eccentric shop owner in a shop called Charlton Emporium. He was dressing some of us in sailing paraphernalia and directing us all with a microphone that he had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. His shop was full of funny signs like "UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE SOLD AS SLAVES". A very surreal and funny experience. That night we stayed up late into the night laughing at the crude stories told by James Bailey and others, I stayed up way too late but it was worth it for the laughs.
The last morning was raining heavily and made me realise we had been lucky to miss that kind of rain. Eventually one by one everyone left and we dished out the remaining fruit and donated the rest to the farm. It was a nice feeling to know we had put on something special that had worked.
One of the most important aspects of the weekend for me was to bring together UK fruities to meet each other and form more of a community in the UK for the lifestyle. We had a good meeting about putting on a larger festival in the UK next year and plans are already underway to make this a reality. We hope you can join us there.
I leave you with a quote from my friend Ted Carr:
"when we fall in line with nature's design, we eat fruit from the vine and feel divine"
Fruity blessings,
Ronnie
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