This week Cider Review published a brilliant article which sums up why orchards are so important and wonderful in more ways than one.

You can read this article here

As James, the Cider Critic so beautifully articulates, orchards are not solely places to harvest fruit to make cider or juice, they are homes to a diverse range of wildlife, they are carbon captures, they provide jobs and they unite communities.

We had some lovely news this morning about a project we supported in 2019 and how this collaboration have gone on to raise money for a new orchard.

Last year we were approached by Mike from Bleasby village, Nottinghamshire. He said that they were wanting to put on an apple day and would we come along with our apple pressing equipment.

It was such a fun day, 1000s of apples were donated from residents including local apple heroes Starkeys who made a generous donation. Villagers then spent the day helping to mill and press the apples. They also had a ton of fun apples related games from apple wanging to pin the tail on the maggot, apple bobbing you name it!

At the end of the day they were left with 100s of litres of juice which they planned to ferment & aptly named the resulting cider ‘Bleasby Wanger’

Fast forward 18 months and they have been selling the cider to raise money to plant an orchard in the local village school. You can read all about the new orchard , how to donate & plans for their next Apple Fest 2022 here

This is what I love about the cider community, collaborations with like minded folk pressing apples together and sharing knowledge and equipment has resulted in more trees and orchards being planted whilst inspiring the future generation in the wonders that are orchards.