Here are some photos of the pressing we did.
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| Publicising Orchard 49 |
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| Chopped Apples going into the scratter |
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| Larger apple press! |
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| The trike! |
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| Pedalling the trike to scrat the apples |
Showing posts with label Apple Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple Day. Show all posts
Another Apple Day!
On Sunday a couple of Orchard 49 volunteers joined Helping Britain Blossom at Unicorn's Apple Day. We were outside juicing apples using the pedal powered scratter (called Pedal Pedal Squish Squish). Inside the shop customers were able to taste over 20 English apple varieties. Quite a few of these were varieties that we don't have on Orchard 49 so it was good to sample them.
Here are some photos of the pressing we did.
Here are some photos of the pressing we did.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Apple Day - 2014
We had a fabulous day last Saturday, with hundreds of people joining us to celebrate the apple harvest. The sun even shone for us, which had looked unlikely as the sun came up.
Here are some photos from the day. A big thank you to everyone who helped on the day, baked cakes, made soup, designed bug trails, bought pizza ingredients, cleaned the pavilion, tidied up before hand and at the end of the day. A great voluntary effort from all.
Amongst the display we had Lord Derby apple muffins and Chocolate and Apple Cake and Grandpa Buxton apple pie made from cooking apples from the orchard.
We gathered kilos of apples from plotholders on the allotments, and some fallers from the orchard to press. We had queues of people wanting to taste and buy bottles of freshly juiced apples.
The pizza oven we have on site was built by plotholders at a cob oven building course in 2012. The course was funded by the grant we had from Local Food for Orchard49. Its been such a fantastic resource. Thanks to all the hardworking pizza makers on the day.
We raised £276 on the day and all that money will be used to maintain and develop Orchard49. Again, thanks to everyone who made it possible.
Here are some photos from the day. A big thank you to everyone who helped on the day, baked cakes, made soup, designed bug trails, bought pizza ingredients, cleaned the pavilion, tidied up before hand and at the end of the day. A great voluntary effort from all.
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| The day started with BBC Radio Manchester doing an outside broadcast from the allotments. |
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| Some of the baking - which raised £140 pounds. |
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| Apple pressing, a highlight of the day. |
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| Lots of interest in the process of apple pressing. As the handle gets lower the children get stuck in too. |
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| Pavillion begins to fill up with visitors |
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| Pizzas from the cob oven sold out by the end of the day. |
We raised £276 on the day and all that money will be used to maintain and develop Orchard49. Again, thanks to everyone who made it possible.
Work session 4th August 2014
Another productive session. As we'd had some heavy rain over the weekend we were able to dig up some plants that had become way to big along the fence line with a neighbouring allotment plot.
We've been needing to do this for some time, but because the soil type on the Orchard is clay its hard to do anything like that during a prolonged dry spell... you lterally can't get a fork into the ground.
We also finally transplanted a couple of gooseberry bushes into the long raised bed - another long over due task.
We've been enjoying raspberries and blackberries while we work and are noticing that some of the apple varieties are ripening very much earlier than in previous years. This makes planning when to hold an apple day really hard. We usually ask plotholders on the site to donate fallers from their trees (of which there are many) and have apples from the orchard to taste (among other things). But if apples are ripening very early then there won't be much to juice or taste... In the past Apple Day has been in late September/early October. So, we are pondering what to do on that!
Thanks to Abi, Debbie, Pete and Julie for all their hard work.
We've been needing to do this for some time, but because the soil type on the Orchard is clay its hard to do anything like that during a prolonged dry spell... you lterally can't get a fork into the ground.
We also finally transplanted a couple of gooseberry bushes into the long raised bed - another long over due task.
We've been enjoying raspberries and blackberries while we work and are noticing that some of the apple varieties are ripening very much earlier than in previous years. This makes planning when to hold an apple day really hard. We usually ask plotholders on the site to donate fallers from their trees (of which there are many) and have apples from the orchard to taste (among other things). But if apples are ripening very early then there won't be much to juice or taste... In the past Apple Day has been in late September/early October. So, we are pondering what to do on that!
Thanks to Abi, Debbie, Pete and Julie for all their hard work.
Sunny Apple Day - 2012
Today was Apple Day at the allotment site and Orchard 49. Juice was pressed, apples and potatoes baked in our cob oven and we had samples of apples grown on the orchard for people to taste. We basked in autumnal sunshine and warm - delightful.
Work for the day, when not talking to visitors, was some hoeing - using a beautiful osillating hoe (Hydra Swing Hoe) from Implementations - who gifted the tool to the Orchard last year. We also painted the trees with fruit tree grease to prevent codling moth next year and picked some apples - lovely they were too.
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| Some of our apple samples on the lovely oak bench in the sunshine |
Work for the day, when not talking to visitors, was some hoeing - using a beautiful osillating hoe (Hydra Swing Hoe) from Implementations - who gifted the tool to the Orchard last year. We also painted the trees with fruit tree grease to prevent codling moth next year and picked some apples - lovely they were too.
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| Claire making light work of hoeing with the wonderful Hydra Swing Hoe |
Apple Day 2011
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| Baking - delicious! |
We pressed gallons of apple (and some pear) juice with the help of young and old. Almost all the fruit we pressed was fallen fruit gathered from plots on our site, so not only were we all drinking delicious juice we were using food that would otherwise have been wasted.
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| Loading press with crushed apple. |
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| Ready to be pressed. |
Apple Tasting in the pavilion was also very popular. We asked people on the site to provide us with some apples for people to sample, and we also had a couple of varieties from the community orchard. Even though the trees on the orchard are very young, we had some Fillingham Pippin (a delicious crisp eater) and one very large cooker - Lord Suffield. This is as close as we can get to having a Manchester apple variety. It was created in Middleton and we're very lucky to have a tree as they aren't widely available. Phil Rainford from the Northern Fruit Group provided us with a scion when we had the grafting workshop in March 2010 after a long search to find somewhere with a Lord Suffield tree.
The Lord Suffield apple was huge - a testament to the advice to thin your crop to get a smaller number of larger apples... I took all but one fruit bud off when they formed and the result was a very large fruit. Yes, I know that strictly speaking you shouldn't let any fruit form on very young trees, but if you can't locate any trees like the one you have locally, isn't it important to get an idea of what the fruit looks and taste like?
Its a yellow cooker and everyone who tasted a slice of Lord Suffield said it was a good cooker - the sort that would cook into a delicious puree - and that it was not too tart either, so wouldn't need much sweetening.
Visitors to the community orchard might have spotted a wonderful "Orchard 49" sign on the shed door, crafted from recycled materials by Trisha Church - thanks, its wonderful.
Thanks also to all the volunteers on the day, the bakers, the cleaners and gleaners for making the event such a success.
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