Apple Day 21st October

Our first Apple Day celebration at the Windmill Hill City Farm was a great success.  Over 500 people came to join in a range of fun appley activities, and enjoyed delicious, freshly-pressed apple juice.  There are some great photos on our Facebook page.

A dozen people helped to pick (mainly Bramley) apples from the Farm, staff and visitors brought in fruit from their own garden, and we had some emergency supplies just in case …

Altogether 7 or 8 green trugs full of apples were processed to a fine mixture which started to produce juice as soon as it was loaded into the hydropress.  The juice was intense in flavor, so we were able to do some ‘second pressings’ of the pulp mixed with water and still get a tasty juice.  The final dry pulp was added to the Farm's compost heap.

As people were drinking the apple juice almost as quickly as we were making it, we didn’t get an exact measure of the total volume produced.  Our best estimate is 80 litres.  It was so popular we ran out of cups.  Some lucky people got to take a whole bottle home at the end.

We are now discussing how best to make the fruit pressing equipment available for hire to other City Farms, community orchards and local people with lots of fruit trees.

In the children’s area they had a go at peeling, slicing and coring apples in one go using an ingenious hand-driven gadget.  They also bobbed for apples – not as easy as it looks!  A beautiful Wish Tree was created with hopes for the day and for the future, this is now in the Farm’s Reception area.

Preparing for Apple Day

Staff and volunteers at the farm are gearing up for our first Apple Day on Sunday 21^st October 12-6pm.  Simone has organised a wide range of fun family activities, all to the sound of Country and Western music

(see http://www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/events/appleday.html). 

The Fruitfulness Project will be trying out the Centrifugal Mill (scratter) and Hydropress for the first time.  We were ambitious and procured large volume equipment – so we can process lots of apples and pears (even grapes).  It’s unfortunate that this first year of the project has been such a poor year for apples – it was so cold and wet when the trees were blossoming that the bees weren’t about to fertilise them.  Many people are reporting that they have no, or very few, fruits on their trees. 

We will be harvesting a variety of apples from the Farm itself this week.  If you have lots of apples and pears in your garden and you’d like to turn some of them into fruit juice, do bring them along to Apple Day.  No rotten fruit or windfalls please! 

 
Fruit pressing equipment from Vigo Presses in Devon

Apple Peeler Slicer Corer from Lakeland

Also bring some clean plastic containers (such as milk cartons or pop bottles) to take away the juice. Be aware that freshly pressed fruit juice contains natural yeasts and these will start to ferment after about a week, producing CO₂ gas.  This could cause glass bottles to explode.  The juice can be pasteurized at 70^oC to prevent this, and juice can also be frozen for longer term storage.

We have a small press that children can try out, and some apple peeler, slicer, corers that are fun to use and speed up processing fruit for cooking. Some of the apple slices will be dried out in a dehumidifier, to make tasty and healthy fruity snacks.  

Poisonous Berries

On a recent foraging walk with young children that retraced the route taken in June (see post below) it seemed a good idea to point out those fruits and berries that are NOT good to eat.  When trying any new fruit, even when it is generally considered to be edible, it is sensible to try only a little bit first, in case you react badly.  Some fruits (haws from hathorns for example) are used in herbal medicine and may have undesirable effects on you, or you may find you are allergic.

Always refer to a reliable guidebook when foraging and only take things which you can identify confidently.  Some good sources of information on toxic berries can be found on the Internet - see The Wild Food School www.countrylovers.co.uk/wfs/wfsberries.htm which has some good photographs and advice for foragers.  The Royal Horticultural Society www.rhs.org.uk has a list of plants that are potentially harmful to humans.

Always wash your harvest before eating! As well as the general dirt and pollution found in the urban environment, some trees may have been sprayed with chemicals. Anything growing low down may have been contaminated by dogs or foxes, and there could be insects (juicy maggots!) on the fruits that you don't want to eat.

We were asked whether acorns were edible: the information found on this suggests that some types are edible, but only after extensive preparation.  You need to research what type of oak the acorns come from, white oaks tend to be more palatable than red oaks.  They all contain bitter tannins that need to be boiled out, with several changes of water.  It is quite a laborious process to make them into an acceptable substance which can be turned into flour, and the last time they were popular in Britain was when there was a famine!  They are a traditional part of the American Indian diet and are also used to make noodles in Korea.