On Sunday 27th September the weather, the apples, the pears, the bottles, and the press all aligned like beautiful stars between 11 am and 3 pm to make a unique day. Some little pleasures such as apple pressing are still here to be enjoyed.
A total of 11 'bubbles' attended the Big Squeeze and around 60 bottles were filled with apple and pear juice. Amongst others, some of the apples that took centre stage were Laxton Fortune, Somerset apples (variety), marguerite Belle de Pontoise, Bramley, Gascoigne Scarlet - oh and conference pears.
For a day, Al Tait put the Orange Bakery aside and used his alchemy towards his annual ritual of operating the crusher and press whilst diffusing a few spellbinding anecdotes.
Alex Wooster, one of the young and inspired volunteers of the Watlington Nature Festival, took over from Al in seconds and demonstrated that a few cakes of apple pulp present no mystery to him.
This event helped people enjoy Nature's bounty and provided a lovely start to the Nature Festival.
Simon Boddy: "It was terrific - we have got all these bottles here, and we're going to drink apple juice for the next couple of weeks! Even better we don't have all the apples accumulating in the garden"
Andrea Brewer used her magic and prepared a beautiful sign with recycles materials and bits of apple tree.
We raised £100.25 which will go towards one of our next community projects.
Thank you to Katie, John and the team at the Spire & Spoke for preparing a lovely space for us and adapting so quickly to changes in regulations.
The Henry Rossiter and Sandy Lane Farm pigs enjoyed the delectable apple pulp Oink! Oink!
Wonderful experience