Saturday, October 22, 2011

Apple Day is an annual celebration of the apple harvest, marked with a variety of events across the country. This year, Apple Day fell on Saturday October 22nd and Swindon Climate Action Network's local food campaign joined forces with Lower Shaw Farm for a local celebration. SCAN has been awarded a grant to buy an apple press and this was at the farm along with Lower Shaw Farm's own apple press. Members of the public came along with their own apples and pears to turn them into juice.

SCAN volunteers met two weeks before the event for a trial run to familiarise ourselves with the new equipment.

The event was very successful with people of all ages getting some hands-on experience of juicing, from families with small children to the elderly couple with some extremely ripe pears which practically juiced themselves! Volumes also varied a lot, with some people bringing just a bag of apples and one family who juiced two wheelbarrows full of apples and left with a six gallon barrel full of juice.

Other local organisations with a food theme held stalls, including

• Purton House Organics
• Vowley Farm
• Wiltshire Wildlife Trust
• National Trust
• Penhill Orchard
• Swindon Allotments and Leisure Gardens Association
• Tony's Trees

Following the success of this year's Apple Day, next year we plan to loan the equipment to like-minded organisations who wish to hold similar events during the apple season.

Tips for storing apples for next year's events:

• pick them carefully, bruised apples will not keep
• find somewhere cool to put them
• wrap the fruit singly in kitchen paper (or even newspaper) and place carefully into boxes or trays
• spread them out a little so they do not touch