Emily Metcalfe, a Creative Media student at Poole College, reports on Wimborne Green Festival’s apple pressing event.
Run by volunteers from St John’s Church, Wimborne, the apple pressing promotes green living by using apples that would otherwise be wasted. These have been donated by local people whose apple trees produced so plentifully that they couldn’t possibly use them all.
The apple pressing process went like this…
A total of approximately 400 kilograms of apples were brought to the Minster Green in an extensive number of boxes and crates. They were chopped by groups of volunteers working in shifts, then put into a huge mincer, which squished them down into a chunky pulp, perfect for pressing.
After this, the next step was to pour the mushed apples into three apple pressers, which ground down the pulp with each turn of the handle – a job which took a lot of strength! The juice was squeezed out, collected in a bucket or bowl, then strained through a sieve to ensure it was smooth.
At the stand, members of the public could have a go at pressing apples themselves, and lots of children enjoyed using a spiral peeler, turning a handle to peel the skin off and then producing a spiralled apple.
Finally, the juice was poured into bottles – about 260 in total – as well as hundreds of small glasses that allowed people to try the apple juice for themselves.
This event was a lot of fun, and produced delicious apple juice which people enjoyed. Using unwanted apples in this way encourages people to keep their apple trees, helping to increase biodiversity; it also reduces food waste – with even the leftover pulp going to a local pig farm.
Photo Credits: First five: Emily Metcalfe. Last photo: Jean Morgan