‘Gift from Grenada’: grapefruit trees win protection after London campaign | London

The pair of subtropical grapefruit is standing, slightly incongruous, in a street in the southwest London for 40 years since Marline Anderson brought them from the Granada – a “gift” of her homeland – and planted them in her garden.

The trees will remain as a memorial in Anderson, who died recently, after activists seeking to protect them were informed Thursday that they had succeeded.

Vasilisa Ermakova, a friend and neighbor of Anderson, said that the campaign concerned not only the preservation of trees but also the preservation of her friend’s memory. “It’s almost as if she would live forever in my eyes.”

The trees, often mentioned in the singular, but in fact two planted with each other, said Ermakova, is among some of their species that grow outside the Kew gardens in the United Kingdom.

A plate on the wall outside of the old house of Anderson in Battersea said to passers -by that she planted the grapefruit “with love in the 1980s”. He reads as follows: “A gift from his homeland, pomegranate. He bears fruit all year round, his essence lives in his roots.”

The plaque also bears Anderson’s words: “Abbrevly with the tree of the tree. You are welcome to collect what nature has dropped. ”

Lior Berman, a local chief who campaigned so that the trees were granted to legal protection, said that she had transformed the fruit into a marmalade for her business, Lior’s Kitchen. “It was like candied orange, but a little more bitter. You can use the sheets for tea or to wash your hair. ”

Berman said that if someone had come to remove the trees, people would have lost something special. “You want to have a relationship and a link with nature. When you have a healthy and mature tree that produces fruit in the city, you want to protect it as much as you can,” she said.

“People are doing well, far too far from nature. These are exactly the little things that can allow us to have this healthy link with nature. Gardening is healthy, it’s relaxing, it’s good for your mental health. ”

This is one of the reasons why activists, including Berman and Ermakova, have given the trees protected. They feared that because the apartment belongs to the Wandsworth council, they would end up being deleted.

These fears were now appeased after the assistant chief of the Council, Kemi Akinola, arrived in the House on Thursday to reveal that the Council had agreed to implement a protective order, which means that there would be legal ramifications for anyone who withdrew them. The council also undertook to maintain the trees.

The order is provisional, pending complete approval, which can only be granted after a 28 -day consultation period. But Akinola said that the political will was there to protect this play from the heritage of the region.

She said: “We are trying to record the history of our Windrush generation at the moment. Because, otherwise, once they have gone, the stories will go.” Small pieces of heritage such as Batteaa grapefruit are part of this story, she said.

“Marline was the community,” said Ermakova. “Everyone on the street knows that she was a friend with everyone. She took care of everyone. She has three children, but I still say that she probably has about 20 children because everyone calls her “mom”. “

Ermakova said that she was happy that the trees received the type of protection that their lively thorns could not provide. “Happy, but a little bit bittersweet because, obviously, she is not there to see him. And she would have really loved it would be protected.”

Ermakova said that she did not yet know what she feels, given the short period since Anderson’s death. “I think all of us, family and friends, let’s be overwhelmed, since the funeral were only on Monday.”

But she added: “If we can drive here in 50 years and see the tree, then it will be quite phenomenal.”