Apple Day, Saturday 20 September – come and join the fun!
The weather forecast for Saturday may be looking a little iffy, but Apple Day will proceed as planned, whatever the heavens throw at us!
The venue is Chillington Village Hall, and pressing starts at 11 am. Bring apples to press if you have them, but if you don’t – don’t worry: thanks to our volunteers, who collected a magnificent 33 sacks of apples from the Community Orchard at Great Hill Wood, it looks like there’s going to be plenty of juice to go around.
It’s always a good idea to bring a container if you can to take your juice home in, as we sometime run out of bottles towards the end of the press. Rinsed milk containers are as good as anything else for fresh (unpasteurised) juice, which will keep in the fridge for up to three days. Although frankly I’d be amazed if our delicious juice lasts anywhere near three days in anyone’s fridge!
As well as gallons of juice there will be hot and cold drinks, cakes, and even some hot food for sale, so come along and make a day of it with your neighbours. We particularly like to put children to work on the apple press, so if you have any at home who like getting good and sticky, bring them along too!
The opening ceremony for the South Hams Way and subsequent mass walk that was scheduled for Sunday 14 September has been postponed due to a forecast of heavy rain and high winds.
If you’ve been through the orchard in Great Hill Wood lately it won’t have escaped your notice that the apple trees are laden with fruit, to the point where some branches are near to breaking under the strain. This year’s record apple harvest, described as “exceptional” by local orchard owners, is due to a combination of a warm and relatively dry early spring, which promoted flowering, and a particularly sunny April that allowed the pollinators maximum time in the air to work their magic, resulting in a very successful fruit set.
