Putting the squeeze on

We still had some apples left and got another chance to borrow the Dig In apple press, so we did some more apple squeezing today. It also meant that Windmill volunteers could really get to know how to run a press and how to prepare the fruit so they will be able to do the whole thing themselves if needed.

Ellis and Helen make a good team using the scratter to crush the apples

After pressing the juice, we essentially just gave it away to anyone who was passing or working on the other allotments. This seemed to go down well!

Pete enjoys a taste of our apple juice.

Hugh liked the juice so much he took some home for later.

Well done to Helen and Ellis, who basically did all the hard work as Tracey swanned around passing out the pressed juice. Jools wasn't able to come in today, so we saved her some.

Helen finds even more melons than we thought we had.

We also harvested all the shark's fin melons, as a frost was forecast. After the session, we took some of the best ones over to the Chinese Welfare Association. They were delighted to get them, but told us that the ones grown in China are 3 times the size of ours!

The Chinese Community were pleased with the melons and promise us the recipe for making them into soup.

Later this afternoon, Tracey went to the after-school group at the Nottingham University Samworth Academy (NUSA) to finish off pressing the apples and give them some more advice on their new fruit and vegetable plot. The pupils all did very well and although they immediately thought about how big industrial machines would be able to do the work, they were still very enthusiastic about juicing using good old-fashioned human muscle power. We also helped them try out safe cutting techniques, so lots of good learning went on.

NUSA pupils getting the juice going.

Thank you again to the Dig In Community Allotment for lending us the apple press and scratter.