Apple Day, Apple Day – it’s just two weeks away!

Apple Day, one of the best-attended community events of the year, takes place a fortnight tomorrow, Saturday 17 October. On that day your trusty team of volunteers will, in time-honoured tradition, carefully set up Orchard Link’s largest oak apple press outside the village hall in Chillington, and go about their allotted task of pressing every spare apple in the parish into delicious juice (or, for those who have the skill and patience, a cider of rare delicacy) before the sun sets. Many of the apples will have come from one or more of the three community orchards in the parish, located in Beeson, Stokenham, and Chillington, gathered by schoolchildren or youth groups. Others will have been donated by generous orchard owners. Some will have arrived direct from village gardens in a plastic bag. All apples are welcome – all will be pressed, and there will be juice for everyone!

It’s been a funny old year in the orchard. Climate change has played havoc with temperatures, rainfall, and seasonality. Some trees have thrived while others have failed to produce a single fruit. Chillington Great Wood, normally a reliable source of apples to press, has had a very poor season, with over half the trees bearing little to no fruit at all. Beeson and Stokenham have done better, while a number of private orchard owners are reporting an excellent crop. A certain amount of variability is to be expected, the result of site microclimates and the range of varieties planted, but there will certainly not be as many apples as there were after last year’s bumper harvest.

All of which is a long way of saying: if you have any apples in your garden that you would like to have pressed, or if you fancy a morning or afternoon scrumping in one of the community orchards to gather a bag or two to bring along, then please do go ahead – the more, the merrier! Remember, apples to be pressed do not have to be perfect. Skin blemishes, a little bird peck or two, even a brown spot – all of these press well to give a delicious blend of juice. Come along on Saturday 17th – with or without apples – and try some yourself!