“It’s juicing day! The highpoint of the year for Transition Town Wellington (TTW), and a cloudy‑sunshiney mixed autumn day it is. Perfect apple weather.
The team rock up early at Brendon Orchards’ community press, and unload the crates. Run by a cooperative, the press was set up in 2007 in order to “stop the tragic waste of apples”, and this time of year it’s booked up solid. Somerset is apple central, with over 150 varieties to chose from, and the TTW volunteers have been harvesting windfalls and excess apples from local orchards and farms for the past three weeks.
Booted, aproned and sporting white dinner-lady hats, we set to work. Each apple is cleaned and sorted. Duke of Cornwall, Newton Wonder, Peter Lock and Blenheim Orange. Tiny sour cider apples and pale green monsters that hardly fit in one hand – they all go into what I’ve been calling the “hopper‑chopper” but I am reliably informed is actually a scratter. They tumble in the funnel with a satisfying thunder-roll, the blades whirr, and out comes splat after splat of scrumptious pulp.
Image of article published in the Observer Feb 9th, 2025 – you can 