After a hiatus of four years, the fifth Village Apple Day took place yesterday (15th October), organised by Wittenham Warriors and hosted by the Sylva Wood Centre.
The weather could not have been kinder with sunshine for the whole day. More than two dozen people turned out to help, and many more donated cakes to keep the workers going.
Sally Duff, one of the Wittenham Warriors organisers, holds aloft the last apple to go into the juicer.
There were people weighing and taking money, others chopping and doing quality control, still more crushing and juicing, bottling and pasteurising, as well as people keeping everyone topped up with tea and coffee. It was a truly community event with people from all over the village, and of all ages, pitching in to make this a fun day for all.
Unfortunately there was not such an abundant apple harvest in the village as in previous years, possibly due to the very hot June. Despite this, a total of 200kg of various varieties, including some from the village community orchard, produced ninety-five bottles of pasteurised juice and a couple of dozen of unpasteurised juice. Every bottle will be different because of the mix of apple varieties, and that is one of the joys of locally produced juice.
Although not as many bottles were produced as in previous years, it did allow everyone to ease into how the system works again.
A huge thank you to Gabriel Hemery and the Sylva Foundation for hosting the day and to all those who brought apples, helped production and bought the juice.
The merry team of quality controllers.