We are holding a JUICING DAY on Saturday October 10th at the Village Hall, between 11 am and 3pm. 

We shall be juicing non-stop. To book a slot for your apples to be processed, or if you have apples to donate, please phone Dave on 01362 683237.

In addition, we’ll be selling home-made preserves, serving all day pork (or cheese) and apple themed brunches,  and offering the chance to adopt a tree or become a Friend of the Orchard. There will also be a Tombola and an ‘Anything for £1’ stall kindly offered to support the orchard by Paul Thurlow.

MAKING APPLE JUICE

Making juice from home-grown apples is one of the most satisfying ways of using surplus and windfall fruit. This is achieved with a fruit press that will gobble up pound upon pound of apples and generate gallons of delicious juice which can be drunk immediately, stored until later or turned into cider. Apples can express as much range of flavour as wines and it is a delight to experiment with different varieties and blends. Home made juice is ideal for those who are concerned about chemical spray residues, as you will know what has gone into your juice.
Are your apples ripe?
How do you really know when your apples are ripe? “The apple will fall when it’s ripe” – it’s an old country saying but apples don’t just fall when they are ripe. There are some quite easy ways to tell when your apples are ripe and ready for pressing, eating or cooking. Using ripe apples for pressing, whether for juice or cider, is important as it maximises flavour and juice yield. It also ensures the full sugar potential of your apples, which is particularly important when you come to fermenting for cider.
Here are a few clues to help you determine whether your apples are ripe and ready to use. Apples falling during the our typical harvest time in this country anytime from September to November, can be a good indicator or ripeness, but there are more failsafe methods you can use.
Pip Colour: This is by far the easiest way of determining apple ripeness. Pick a sample apple from the tree and cut it in half. If the apple is ripe the pips should be dark brown. If the pips are pale or just brown then the apples need to stay on the tree for longer. Windfalls should be tested in the same way and only those with dark brown pips should be used for juice and cider making.
Easy Pickings: You can also tell whether an apple is ripe by the ease in which it can be removed from the tree. Cradle a large fruit in the cup of your hand and gently twist it off the stem. If the apple is ripe it will readily fall into your hand. This is the best way to harvest fruits for storage as they are less likely to be bruised and so will keep better. If you have to pull when picking your apples then they are definitely not ready. Never use rotten apples for pressing or making cider. The golden rule is that you don’t press what you wouldn’t want to eat, although for cider making small blemishes won’t matter. Don’t be afraid to blend different apple varieties when pressing. All that matters is that the apples are ripe. Our favourite is a blend of cooking and dessert apples, which gives a flavour-packed balance of tanginess and sweetness.
Crushers: Robust, efficient and easy to use these machines will make fast work of the fruit, producing a consistency appropriate for pressing. Hand operated crushers can be positioned over the cage of the 20 litre presses to crush fruit directly into the press, an easy and efficient process. They can also be used over a bucket.
Selecting Apples: Any sound fruit is suitable; blemishes and the occasional wormhole are not a problem but mouldy or rotten fruit must be avoided. Windfall fruit is perfectly acceptable but it is advisable to wash off any mud before crushing. The size of fruit is not important although small apples are likely to yield less juice than large juicy ones.
Crushing:
Apples must be crushed to give pomace (a grated consistency) before pressing. Crushing is essential because a body of unbroken fruit presents a great resistance to pressure (even hydraulically powered commercial cider presses are fed with finely milled apples). Apples can be crushed by pounding them in a bucket with a clean length of timber although this is a vigorous process. Freezing and then thawing the apples before pounding will make the job easier. Cutting apples into slices is not sufficient. At the opposite extreme, food processors and liquidisers produce too fine a puree for pressing. Using the hand-operated crushers, halved or quartered apples are dropped into the stainless steel hopper, fall onto the blades, are cut and then crushed by the rollers and hooked blades.
How to press apple pomace
Once crushed, the apples can be pressed. The fruit pomace is poured into the cage of the press (the barrel-like part) and pressed by a wooden piston. The piston is pushed down, putting pressure on the fruit, forcing juice out through the gaps in the cage staves. The staves are positioned closely to reduce the escape of pomace, pips and skin and a straining bag can used to further reduce the amount of solids in the juice. The juice flows onto the base plate of the press and out through the lip or drain hole into a jug, bowl or bucket. Once the pomace has been pressed dry, the mechanism is unwound, the cage lifted off the base plate and the cake of dry pomace pushed out. The presses require minimal maintenance: a rinse with fresh water and a touch of vegetable oil to the screw thread is all that is required. The pressed pomace can be composted or fed to livestock. The juice you will produce will be naturally cloudy and will contain small particles of suspended apple solid – as this contributes a great deal to the flavour and texture there should be no need to filter. Fresh juice is so tasty that you will find a lot is drunk immediately; however, it will keep in the refrigerator for two to three days before it begins to ferment.
What will you do with all the juice?
There are several options for storing and preserving apple juice. Make sure that you have enough of the right kind of storage and preserving equipment available on the day, such as Bottles with Screw Caps and Bag-in-Boxes.
Storing fresh (unpasteurised) juice.
Store unpasteurised juice in clean glass or plastic bottles and keep it in the fridge – drink within 2-3 days Unpasteurised juice can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. Line an empty fruit juice carton with a freezer bag before filling with juice, and this will save space in the freezer. Pasteurisation is a method of preservation that gives the juice a remarkably long shelf-life without altering its flavour at all. It involves heating the apple juice in glass bottles or Bag-in-Boxes to 75 degrees Centigrade for 20 minutes. Pasteurised juice can be stored in bottles or bag-in-boxes for 1-2 years.
Important things you will need for the day, in addition to the crusher & press:
Table for cutting fruit and knives and chopping board.
Suitable surface to place the press on if it is too low for easy comfortable use.
Couple of jugs or a Flexi Tub to catch the juice.
Somewhere to store the pressed apple pomace – sets of Flexi Tubs or large bins are ideal; you may find a local livestock farmer who is happy to take the pulp off your hands to feed to cattle or pigs!
Wheelbarrow if you have to move the pressed apple pomace a long way.
Containers to store the juice (ie Bottles or Plastic containers for freezing)
Bucket, brushes and a source of water to scrub down crushers and presses after use.