We recently enjoyed hosting a group of Royal Horticultural Society students, who were interested to learn about commercial vegetable production. They are based at Hartlebury Castle and, as part of the visit, we made the most of an unusually warm Winter’s day by visiting the Tugwood ponds. Whilst there we looked at the rare mature Wild Service tree (Sorbus Torminalis) which produces small fruit in the Autumn that taste a lot like dates, but first must rot a little bit to be edible! Wild Service timber was also used as far back as the 1200s to make crossbows for the King.