We all enjoyed the glorious weather for Hexham’s Eating Festival on Saturday, and with it plenty of freshly pressed apple juice, sourced from local apple trees, courtesy of the TT Apple Press.
It’s been a terrible year for apples across the country and Tynedale has been no exception. The orchard on Leazes Lane has about one fifth the apples it had last year, and most are late varieties. So in the run up to the eating festival we made numerous appeals for apple donations, with the all too often response… “We haven’t got any!”
But thanks to everyone who asked their friends, and friends of friends, we managed to get an admirable yield come pressing day. Special thanks should go to Neil off the Sele, Gillian’s Dad and Wendy for their very generous donations. But we also had numerous gifts of single bags which amounted to a substantial amount in the end… and when the tree is virtually bare, one bag of apples is a lot!
Thanks to all our volunteers (and their families) for helping throughout the day: Debbie, Roger and Jen, Wendy, Megan and Chris, Kat and Andy, Kate, and Phil.
Not that the stall really needed much supervision. Parents and children alike were so keen to get stuck in that the stall really ran itself. There were plenty of comments about ‘child labour’, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. And with the best tasting apple juice in the country (probably) as a reward, I think it was well worth it.
In addition to the ever flowing apple juice, Roger and Jen’s commitment to the Jerusalem Artichoke didn’t waver, as we were treated to artichoke burgers and artichoke wine. They proved to be very popular. We also had some cider on the stall from last year’s pressing. Now we need to start on next year’s batch…
We’re now planning a further event for apple day at the Hexham Farmers’ Market. And guess what? We need more apples! Please get in touch if you have some 🙂
Transition Tynedale 