Apple Day 2013
ARCHIVE: October 2013
by Lauren Parry
On Saturday 19th October we braved the rain and met up at Ravenscraig Walled Gardens to celebrate National Apple Day (October 21st). Despite the weather, we soon had an eager group of apple lovers getting hands on to make delicious apple juice and celebrate the nation’s favourite fruit.
First we cut up the apples…
Then we used a scratter to crush the apples…
Finally we pressed the apples…
…. and drank the rewards!
All of the apples used were grown locally, some from our community orchard (only a handful – ed.), but mostly from the gardens of local people, as the orchard is still very young so did not provide much fruit this year. During a short break in the rain, the bravest among us went for a tour of the orchard, which was planted last year and includes a variety of different fruit trees, including many apple varieties. The trees are making great progress and should provide us with plenty of apples for future Apple Days!
We also got to see (and pick) some of the other fruit growing in the orchard, including plums, strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries to name a few.
Altogether, a great day was had by all. The apple juice was delicious and there was even some leftover to take home. Many of our guests spoke of plans to plant apple trees in their own gardens, especially on hearing that you only need 5 fruit trees to call your garden an orchard!
Thanks to everyone who came along, and to those that donated apples – they went down very well!
If you would like to get involved with the community orchard, we hold regular volunteer sessions and always welcome new volunteers – no gardening experience necessary!
|