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. 

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. 

The day started with BBC Radio Manchester doing an outside broadcast from the allotments.

Some of the baking - which raised £140 pounds. 

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.

 

Apple pressing, a highlight of the day.

 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.

Lots of interest in the process of apple pressing. As the handle gets lower the children get stuck in too.

Pavillion begins to fill up with visitors

Pizzas from the cob oven sold out by the end of the day.

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.