Village Apple Day

Be apple-ready, for this year’s community juicing event on Sunday 19th October, at the Sylva Wood Centre.

The six easy steps to turning your home-grown apples into juice!

1. From 10am-noon, take your boxes/bags of clean apples to the Wood Centre.  Check that they’re not mouldy or too bruised – remember, the quality of the juice depends on the quality of the apples.

2. Your apples will be weighed, the number of bottles of juice they will make will be calculated and you will be given a collection ticket.  Approximately 2kg apples = one 75cl bottle.

3. Your apples (and possibly others, to make a full load) will be crushed in the Apple Mill.

4. The crushed apples go into the Apple Press which, using high-pressure water, squeezes them to produce juice. Vitamin C is added, to prevent the apples from browning.

5. The juice is bottled and capped (bottles are provided) and placed into the pasteurizer, where it is heated to at least 70C for 20 minutes.  This kills any bacteria and gives the juice a shelf life of up to 18 months.

6. Once cooled, the juice is ready for collection (and consumption) from 1:3pm.

Please note, the £3 charge per bottle of juice remains at last year’s price.  This covers purchase/hire of bottles/caps/extra pasteuriser/other equipment.  The service is free.  If you would like to show further appreciation for this fantastic, free community event, there will be a pot for donations, with all monies going back into future village projects.

Other juicy info …

SPARE APPLES?  Even if you don’t want any apple juice, but have apples to spare, please take them along.  The juice can be sold to others, who may not have their own apple trees, so everyone can benefit!

NO APPLE TREES?  You can still enjoy the event.  Go along and watch the process.  There are usually extra bottles of juice to purchase.

NO TRANSPORT?  If you cannot get your apples to the Wood Centre, let the organisers (see below) know and they will try to arrange collection.

VOLUNTEERS: New helpers  can expect a warm welcome, good chat and tea, sandwiches and cake.  There are a variety of roles to fill, from weighing, sorting, pulping and juicing, to bottling, pasteurizing, labelling.

QUESTIONS & VOLUNTEERS: Please contact this year’s organisers, Sally Jarman (sallyjarman25@gmail.com) and Philippa Purvis (philippa.purvis@googlemail.com).

Thanks to the Sylva Foundation for hosting.