Whitminster Apple Day

Mark Jones gave a very interesting talk about the Eastington Community Orchard Group. Eastington had about 30 productive orchards in the early 1940’s. They were important as they were both food and drink as the water was unclean in those days and therefore unpalatable. There were 10 or 11 cider/ale houses in the area. In fact many gardens in the village still contain mature fruit trees.

In March 2011 the Eastington Community Orchard Group was started to reinstate as many orchards as possible in the village. The ECO group now has members who can do as much or as little as they wish and activity ranges from simply receiving updates on the group to taking part in working parties. A business plan was submitted to the parish council to utilize land at the end of the burial ground, previously used by a local farmer to graze cattle. The parish council granted permission in December 2010 and, after all formalities were completed, the Eastington Community Orchard Group took over and started to develop the land in March 2011. Grant money was vital in getting the project off the ground. Work was started and apple trees were purchased and fenced to animal-proof the site. A local farmer donated 100 blackcurrant plants and raspberry canes which have been housed in protective cages. Churchend Orchard will remain open to the public for residents and visitors to walk through and enjoy. The group is working to secure more land to create a number of productive orchards in the village.

The group holds annual Apple Days where fruit from villagers’ gardens is collected and pressed, pasteurised and bottled by the group. The group is very grateful to the nearby William Morris House for allowing the use of their juicing facilities and sharing their knowledge. Both apples and pears can be pressed as ECO produces three blends. Sweet - a blend of pears and apples, medium - apples only and sharp - bramley apples.

Mark explained that washed apples are mushed in a scratter., then pressed which produces the apple juice. Once the juice has stopped flowing you are left with the promace which when dry can be fed to pigs, or it can be used for garden compost so nothing is wasted.

The flavour of freshly-pressed apple juice is distinctly more intense and has a different flavour to that of commercial apple juice. Fresh juice has a short shelf life so most bottles are pasteurized by filling the bottle to the top, capping it and then letting it cool down. That increases the shelf life to twelve months.

It is a venture in which the whole community can be involved including the local primary school. Mark’s talk both was an excellent insight into the work of Eastington Community Orchard.

Adrian Hale.