This was held on Sunday 27th October 2013, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. We know now! – expect to be busy!

Three or four people had contacted Chris beforehand to say that they were coming, in the end a total of nine people came bringing fruit for juicing or to see what was happening, and the time just flew by for our four volunteers.

We found that all the juice was sweeter than the previous year (even the juice from cooking apples) so we had put aside some boxes of our sourest apples to mix in with the ones that people brought.  It turned out to be a good idea, as people who came with only sweet dessert apples were still able to go home with juice that was a nicely balanced flavour (dessert apples on their own make a pretty bland juice).

In total, people brought around 100 kg of apples, which produced about 50 litres of juice to be taken home.  This was raw juice, of course, and not pasteurised.  It has a fantastic flavour!  Most people had even remembered to bring some bottles to put it in (and we had some nice clean milk-bottles saved up for those who hadn’t).

The juice can either be refrigerated, and drunk fresh within a few days, pasteurised or frozen.  (Or used to make cider.)
Everyone who came to the Community Juicing Day said it was fascinating to see the process and to watch their surplus apples, which might otherwise have rotted away, turn into delicious juice.

All in all, it was a very successful afternoon and we have decided that in future we will offer two Community Juicing Days.  One at the end of September, for the early apples, and one at the end of October for the late ones.