Mansbridge Apple Day 2017 Community Orchard

As we waited patiently to see what the weather would do, on our Apple Day at Mansbridge Community Orchard, my daughter and I baked a scrumptious seasonal Apple Cake to take along. 

We did eventually set the start time back a couple of hours, to dodge the rain and this did catch a couple of people out but fortunately, they all came back later and stayed on until the end of the day. 

Despite the grey skies, damp ground and dripping trees, we had a good turn out, with lots of new, local children joining in. The trees were filled with fruit, as they always are and teams of pickers were shuttling back and forth between the trees and the tables.

At the Southampton Woodcraft Folk base camp, apples were being enthusiastically sliced, diced and chopped up into smaller segments, which were then tipped into the scratting mills, pulped down and tipped into the various cider press baskets.

Then the press screws were turned down and the tastiest golden nectar began to flow by the gallon. People were dodging between the presses filling bottles, various containers or cups and glugging back the delicious apple juice. 

Altogether it was a very successful and fun day for everyone concerned; some people even found time to gather some walnuts from the massive tree nearby (I collected five kilos, in twenty minutes, the day before). 

According to some sources, it was said that in the 'golden age,' when men lived upon acorns the gods lived upon Walnuts, hence the name of Juglans, or Jupiter's nuts.

Don't forget to put the Urbane Forager book on your Xmas present lists!

Loads at the Allotment

When the Summer sun is shining, there’s nowhere better to be than deep in the UK countryside, and we were lucky to have a fantastic fortnight in Devon. After returning from our holiday we knew we had to get back up to our allotment, to see how the weeds were growing.

We were a tad concerned that no one had been available to water our vegetable plot during all that scorching hot weather. However, on arriving, we found to our delight, a burgeoning crop of Super veg; well we thought it was super (not too bad for our first year) but it wouldn't win any agricultural show prizes.

We rummaged through the undergrowth and found Squashes, Runner beans, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Beetroot, Onions and Courgettes, some of which had turned into massive Marrows. The fruit cage had a few raspberries available and there were masses of blackberries all over the place, not that we had propagated these.

One of the huge marrows was finally transformed by the Head Chef into six jars or scrummy Chilli and Courgette Chutney.

I also used the Raspberries and a couple of stray Blueberries to make another bottle of summer fruit liquor, which will be ready later on. So far I have tried Cherry Brandy, Sloe Gin, Mulberry Gin, Blackberry Vodka and Summer Fruit liquor. I’m not sure which will be my favourite but it should be good fun finding out…

Apple Day at Mansbridge Community Orchard

The day was overcast and I had been outdoors since 9:00, my son had been playing rugby at a tournament.  Now it was 2:30 and we were heading to Mansbridge, to take part in the Apple Day Picking and Pressing event.

I’m pleased to say that the Southampton Woodcraft Folk have taken an active role in the Mansbridge Community Orchard; this event was planned and organised by them, but open to all.

We arrived, slightly late and the scene was one of tremendous animation and bustling activity. There was a big tent, lots of tables and benches, two presses, a fruit mill or scratter and loads of apples and pickers.

Everyone was doing something; bodies were crowded around tables and children were scurrying about everywhere. There was even a group of people knitting, jointly weaving a strange and interesting article (Possibly a Christmas jumper for an oddly shaped child).

After brief greetings and introductions, we recruited a small group of friends and children and set off into the trees to fill our large bags and buckets with apples.

As we picked and collected, various other participants were ferrying the vast amount of apples back to the base camp in the containers.

Back at the trestle tables, a smoothly run sequence of events was being meted out, processing the apples into juice...

The fruit was first fleetingly washed. The cores were removed and the apples sliced, by deploying a cunning little kitchen instrument that did the job in one swift action (I must get one of these).

The chopped apples were tipped into the scratter, which was powered by strong and enthusiastic children. The pulp was then emptied into the press and the screw turned down by many keen helping hands and the delicious fresh juice flowed out into waiting receptacles.

Finally, the remaining apple mush, minus the precious juice, was taken back into the trees and left to nourish the ground and wildlife.

It was a lovely, friendly event and even when it started to drizzle about 4.00, most people seemed oblivious to the weather and carried on with the communal fun.

Attack On Manure Mountain

The Allotment

Last year, friends of ours obtained an allotment, with the price of food rising, this made good sense. Like us, they are keen amateurs and their allotment is an oasis of calm in the middle of the city.  It is a pretty big space though, especially for a busy family with kids; so they asked us and other friends, if we would like to join in and make it a communal effort. 

Lovely Weather For It

The first job was defining where the beds were going to be and removing as much of the weeds and rocks as possible from the ground. While doing this preparatory work, late last summer, we caught a slow worm and brought him home so that he could be released to feast on the ants and slugs in our garden. When I was a boy, I had a pet grass snake but he kept escaping and scaring my mum.

The next stage was to thoroughly dig all the beds over and weed them. This is really hard work, especially if you don’t have much spare time and are not used to it. So it does pay to have a few extra contributors who will help when they can. Once the beds had been roughly turned over, we left them to allow Jack Frost to break the ground up a bit further.

Attack On Manure Mountain

Then, in a fit of enthusiasm, Pete recklessly ordered a trailer full of manure from a local farm in Rownhams. The tractor duly arrived and delivered the pile of poo/straw; the job now, was to spread it over the various beds to nourish the ground before planting.

Another Barrow Load

The mountain of muck looked a daunting task when we first arrived, but the sun was out and we soon put a significant dent in it. Using our forks, spades and a wheelbarrow, we distributed it about the site while the kids worked to help spread it out.

Looking Better

Then, reinforcements arrived. Fortunately they came bearing banana cake, our fig-roll and doughnut supply was running dangerously low at this point.

A Pretty Good Effort So Far

After all the hard graft, the fun part is thinking about what to plant, I’m definitely having some raspberries and blueberries in my plot, I love being able to eat the tastiest fruit straight off the plant.

The Full Team, Hard At Work

I think a nice little tree makes sense too; something that gives us luscious fruit early in the season seems a sound idea. We’ll also be planting some exciting root vegetables; so we’ll have something to bring home for the Head Chef.

Of Course, It's Not All Hard Work...