The Orchards Path

What To Do With The Fruit

Throughout the ages people have had the pleasurable task of thinking of ways of disposing of an abundance of fruit. There either seems to be too little or too much. Here are some ideas:

Cider apples / perry pears – sell them to local cider / perry press – as Stoke Gabriel Community Orchard does in south Devon.

Fruit for eating / cooking – sell it at the ‘orchard gate’ or sell it to the village shop, or at fêtes and Apple Day, 21 October. Growing selling and buying locally helps to reduce food miles.

Distribute the fruit to those without gardens / fruit trees.

Make cider / perry or wine. Simple fruit crushers, presses and fermenters are available at very reasonable cost from suppliers such as Vigo Vineyard Supplies.

Make fruit juice. About 20 apples will make one litre of juice. Farmers may be willing to hold ‘open days’ to help people juice their fruit with their machinery.

Many varieties of apples and pears can be stored over winter until spring in a cool well-ventilated shed or garage. Alternatively apples can be puréed and frozen or made into jam.

Use the fruit for cooking a special Apple Day feast.

Once ripe, cobnuts / filberts can be stored in the fridge in a loosely fastened polythene bag for several weeks. Alternatively, shell them and roast them in a low oven until crisp and eat or freeze, or grind and use as a garnish. Or bury them in a cake tin in the garden till after Christmas, but remember where you put them....

Orchards can be ideal places for free-range chickens, ducks or geese.

Give an apple on Apple Day as a token of friendship.

Take your fruit harvest to be sold at one of the growing number of farmers’ markets, which are operated by growers rather than market traders. The pioneer Bath Farmers’ Market celebrated Apple Day during its first weeks. A list is available from the National Association of Farmers’ Markets.

Don’t forget to leave some fruit for the wild life!

If you have a Community Orchard, please let us know -
email info [at] commonground.org.uk.

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