Apple weekend in Wiltshire

Last weekend I went to Wiltshire to meet up with seven friends and spend time in honour of the apple. We picked and pressed fruit from the orchard to make delicious juice. We were blessed with glorious autumn sunshine and I was all eyes and ears to learn as much as possible at my first ever juicing event.



A geographic mix (ie. all from the same area) of fruit was used, with Russets (a good cider apple) going in at quite a high proportion to ensure a tasty flavour.





Once picked the fruit was washed and roughly chopped prior to pulping. The roughly chopped fruit then goes into the scatter to be pulped before pressing.



We used a modern press which involved a perforated metal barrel that has a bladder inside that inflates with water from the tap, squeezing juice from the pulp at pressure. The residue from pressing is remarkably dry. A really clever machine for producing juice quickly and easily. The first tasting was superb- really sweet and exceptionally flavoursome, it put any supermarket juice to shame.





Bottling proved to be a really satisfying activity.