Something fishy going on as mackerel are planted
WHAT would be the first thing you would add when planting a fruit tree?
Perhaps soil, compost, some manure or fertiliser.
In Tarbert last week, the trees were treated to two whole plump mackerel to nestle within their roots before the children of Tarbert Academy backfilled the saplings.
Work at the village’s new community orchard – not far from Tarbert Castle – continued apace last Thursday as cooking apple trees were planted by P7 pupils.
Also planting a tree was Tony Crombie, asset manager for renewable energy firm Infinis at the company’s A’ Chruach wind farm.
Infinis recently donated £10,000 to Tarbert Castle Community Orchard, and Tony was impressed with what he saw. ‘This is great,’ he said.
‘We wanted support a standalone community project, and this fits the bill. It is a definite boost to the village and is going to be around for a long time.’
‘We want to thank all our supporters,’ added Robert McPhail of Tarbert Castle Trust, ‘but the contribution from Infinis was critical in allowing the project to go ahead in the first place.’
While the pupils enjoyed getting down and dirty among the peaty soil and mackerel scales, their head teacher Neil McKnight explained: ‘The community orchard offers a great opportunity to develop links within our community. Every level of class gets something from coming here, and our P7 pupils are learning about the environment, so they couldn’t get much better than coming up here to help today.’
As for the fish, Mr McPhail revealed that it is an old tradition followed in many places around the world, particularly among the native American population. He added that there is, however, no tradition of planting fish in Tarbert.
Until now, that is…