The Perthshire Advertiser reports on efforts in that neck of the woods to preserve and revitalize old orchards and the varieties they contain. I didn’t know this, but the Carse of Gowrie (which sounds like an ancient honorific title but is, in fact, a stretch of land north of Edinburgh on the north side of the Firth of Tay) is an ancient centre of fruit-growing in Scotland. A joint effort by local authorities and others has conducted a survey and is examining ways of making more of the remaining old orchards — 28 of 51 have already been lost — and their trees. There’s a meeting on 30th January. If anyone there is reading this, we’d love to know more.