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.