Our Apple Day was a huge success today.

The first job this morning was to collect the apples from one of our orchard trees that was covered in beautiful fruit.

Whilst some of us picked the fruit fresh from the tree, Cerys, Luke and Claire collected the fallen apples and sorted them for compost or pressing. They also had a little help from Lottie the cat.

We then chopped the apples into rough quarters.

We were lucky to have borrowed a traditional press and Scratter plus all the necessary equipment from friendly local business owner Robin, who runs Cam Home And Gardens - a hardware/ garden/ homebrew shop in Chesterton. Robin had given me a short training for safe and correct use of the equipment.

The Scratter is a brilliant piece of traditional equipment that mulches the apples before pressing. We really enjoyed this part of the process.

Once the apples were mulched they were ready to go into the press. We put the press together carefully to Robins instructions and filled it with apple pulp. Then the blocks, spindle and handle were attached.

And then the pressing began...

We bottled 8 litres of our own juice from just two presses.

And then the moment of truth! Time to taste it!

Wow! You've never tasted apple juice like when you've picked, chopped, mulched, pressed and bottled your own apples! Delicious!