Apple Day 2016

We were blessed with a gloriously warm, sunny October day for Apple Day.  It was an early start to let the BBC radio Manchester crew in at 8.30 am. They came to do some outside broadcast work promoting the event to listeners.  Volunteers started to arrive at 9 am and by 10 there were plenty of people busily prepping apples for pressing.

Volunteers busy preppiing apples for juicing

The BBC left around 10:45 taking a bottle of freshly pressed juice with them for the studio presenters Phil Trow and Chelsea Norris to taste. You can listen to the programme here ( whizz to 1 minute 26:20 - 1:30:25 then 1:51-1:56 then 2:54:20-2:56).

We had a new machine to test out as well. Helping Britain Blossom asked Alfred Chow to create a pedal powered juice machine. 

Pete using the mobile juicer

The idea is someone can pedal the trike to power the machine that pulps the apples before they go into the press (the machine is called a scratter). At the back of the trike you can also see a larger apple press which we used in addition to the smaller press that you can see in the first photo.

We had lots of delicious cakes baked for the day, all but one included apples and everything was enjoyed by those who visited. 

As in the past we did apple tasting, giving people a chance to taste some of the apples from Orchard49.  There were 12 different varieties available for tasting, including a few that we've not been able to try before (because they had already been picked and eaten). Firm favourites were Merlin's Apple, Lemon Pippin, Dog's Snout (for the aroma of these apples), Yorkshire Cockpit and Ladies Finger of Lancaster.  The last three of these are all cookers, but everyone found them to be far less sharp than the widely available cooker, Bramley.  The highlight of the apple tasting was the adventurous children who happily tucked into anything and everything, often returning for more.

As always, thanks go to all the volunteers who made the event possible. The bakers, the choppers, the refreshments whiz, thanks so very much for your time and enthusiasm.