Pressing apples in Oxfordshire

Enjoying freshly-pressed apple juice at a Master Composter event in 2009!

After a wonderful day at the Garden Organic Volunteers Conference at Ryton, I'm going try and put together some blog posts that I think you might find interesting/useful. For those of you who don't visit the website very often, remember that you can sign up to have new posts delivered to you via email - just pop your address in the box on the right hand side.

At this time of year our thoughts turn to how to deal with abundant apple harvests - many of which seem to be left to rot by owners of unappreciated trees. And apple pressing is a fun event that lots of local groups get involved with. Sometimes free, sometimes for a small free, you can take along your apples (or help deal with someone else's surplus!) and a bottle or two and end up with freshly-pressed juice to drink on the way home.

Sustainable Blewbury are holding their event today (Sunday September 25th), 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm at St Michael’s Church. Check the CAG Oxfordshire event listing for a map. MC Angela Hoy is listed as the contact :)

For those of you for whom that's short notice (or whose apples aren't ready yet...) here are some more forthcoming events:

October 2, 2016 @ 10:30 am – 4:30 pm, Bridge Street Garden Harvest Festival in Banbury

October 8, 2016 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm at The Mix, Wantage

October 8 2016, 10am-12 at North Kidlington school,Benmead Road, Kidlington.

October 8 2016, 11am – 4pm, Barracks Lane Harvest Festival

October 9 2016 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm at Cogges Farm Apple Day (as part of a larger event, for which there is an entry fee)

And a late one from Abundance Oxford:

November 6 2016, Apple Pressing with Donnington Doorstep SureStart Centre

If you know of apple pressing events you want to add to the list then you can leave a comment on this post or email them to Emma/Eiles for inclusion in the post. And if you have forthcoming events you want to promote then let us know and we'll put those up as well!

And finally... advanced warning if you're likely to find yourself in Tesco this autumn. Between 31st October and 13th November (let's hope that's not a Friday!) Tesco shoppers 'in the region' are going to be asked to vote for one of three shortlisted environmental projects. The winning project will get a £12,000 grant. The second and third place projects will receive £10,000 and £8,000 as part of the £12.5 million Tesco Bags of Help initiative, money raised from the 5p plastic bag levy. Who you vote for is up to you, of course (and I don't know what the other two projects are as yet), but the Earth Trust want the money to improve access to their community woodland, Neptune Wood for young families and the disabled, which sounds like a worth endeavour.