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.

Moyra's wormery update

The Wormery is housed in the greenhouse which resides in permanent shade. The worms do not settle well in the enclosed shed. They seem to want to escape and l don't quite trust them entirely to the open air.

Although it is placed on sand. Perhaps that's what keeps them in.

A few leaves remain on top. All the compost has gone from this layer.

.....and apparently has been transformed into fine textured grainy worm droppings.

I dig both hands gently through it to release the worms....

And separate them in twos and threes- it's easier without gloves and in fact l love the feel of them on my bare hands. They are not slimed in the least.

Close up of casts. No soil or compost remains on close inspection. My worms must have been ready to exodus across the sand.

This too is lovely to sift through with bare hands. There are eggs in here.

Harvested poo into container.

This is all that's left of my enormous leaf pile (photo on Autumn newsletter). I am using some of interior mushy stuff for worm food....

And some of this years compost. Food waste in the form of bokashi waste mixed with soil has been filtered through well cut up compost and grass cuttings. This method of feeding waste food is fester proof. Worms seem to enjoy it.

So leaves in one and raw compost in the other on top of the worms.

Then place the leaves on top of the compost.

.......like so. I realise that what I have done here sort of breaks the rules (waste reduction ethos etc) however l manage tojustify it. One, l am so fearful of killing my charges with noxious gases from rotting food. This way l reason that the rotting is simply done in advance .Two, if l go awayfor any length of time, and l do often, l can leave them unsupervised.

Last thing a proud label needed.

And I am done.

Tools for change

You've donated over 4,500 tools to #ToolsforChange and now, we're extending the deadline: https://t.co/LAIJ3jtJxo pic.twitter.com/EOdBDDaWTO

— WyevaleGardenCentres (@WyevaleGC) June 9, 2016

Now is a good time to clear out the shed, as you can recycle and old hand tools at your local Wyevale garden centre until 9th 20th June. If you want to you can then claim a 10% discount on new hand tools, but that's not compulsory!

This is a good scheme because the donated tools are going to be reconditioned by prison inmates through the Tools Shed HM prisoner workshops, and will then be given free to schools and community groups, in a Starter Pack containing five to seven tools, at a Tool Giveaway Day – dates to be announced – at eight of Wyevale's centres in early 2017. None of those centres are local to Oxfordshire, but school and community groups can apply now if they would like to receive free tools.

Visit the Wyevale website for more details.

Free compost giveaway!

There are two free compost giveaways in Oxfordshire in April, where you can also collect kitchen caddies and liners, and free recycling goodies, as well as buy discounted compost bins!

Our Food Future

The number of mouths we have to feed is increasing, and the way we produce our food will have to change. But how?

What does the future hold for Oxfordshire's food system?

What does the future hold for Oxfordshire's food system, in a warming world? This is the question Good Food Oxford will be exploring in their next event, the third in their Research Kitchen series. The event is free to attend, but you will need to book a ticket - it's being held on Tuesday 15th March from 6pm, at an address on South Parks Road. Visit Good Food Oxford's website for the details and the link to book your ticket.

Mesmerising video of composting worms at work

This mesmerising time-lapse video shows composting worms, Eisenia fetida, working their way through layers of compost and sawdust over 20 days. Photos were taken every 10 minutes and video is played at 24 fps.

You can read more about the making of the video, and worm composting, at Rodale's Organic Life website.