Juice It For Fun:
celebrating the harvest with Community Apple Days
Community Apple Days are a chance to come together to celebrate your green space, taste the fruit, make fresh juice and run fruit-themed games and activities. Since the first event in 1990, ‘Apple Day’ traditionally falls on the 21st October, but it can be celebrated on any other day in the autumn, when the apples are ripe.
On this page you will find ideas for activities, a planning checklist and a template risk assessment for you to plan and run your own Apple Day in your community. Please book the equipment here.
Eating & Drinking
Ideas for preparing and sharing the fruit harvest
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The Main Event of community Apple Days! Uses up lots of apples, and the fresh pressed juice is heavenly. Easily one of the best ways to enjoy the apple harvest. Follow our step-by-step guide here.
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Bring what you have grown, whether it’s apples, pears, plums, figs, or any other fresh fruit to share. Bonus points if you know the variety!
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Apple-themed Great British Bake Off. Think pies, crumbles, strudels. A great way to enjoy the abundance of cooking apples.
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Jams and chutneys are easy to make and are a great way to preserve the apple harvest.
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Slice up lots of apples, then use a dehydrator or an oven on a low setting to dry them. Will store for up to a year.
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Mulled apple juice is a delicious autumnal treat. Heat your juice and add flavours such as cinnamon, clove, ginger, orange peel and star anise. Add sugar if your juice is on the sour side.
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Get creative with your freshly pressed apple juice and see what you can blend it with to make a delicious seasonal cocktail.
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These are a fun addition to community events, loved by all ages. If you’re in the Leeds area, you can borrow a Smoothie Bike from Hyde Park Source.
Play
Game ideas for your community Apple Day event
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A traditional party game with origins in Celtic traditions, where players use only their mouths to retrieve apples floating in a tub of water.
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You will need an apple spiral peeler/corer gadget such as this one.
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An easy spin on the classic egg & spoon race. Dropped and bruised apples can be washed and added to the apple press!
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Celebrate the trees in your community orchard by decorating them with ribbons, bunting and baubles. An old tradition among many different cultures.
More ideas…
Crafts
Apple stamping (like potato printing)
Face painting
Bug Hotels made with scrap materials
Leaf and bark rubbings
Listen
Storytelling
Music - maybe leading a parade around the orchard.
Performance and theatre
Learn
Apple identification
“Orchard Question Time” with an expert.
Tree identification
Training; pruning, grafting, pests and diseases
Explore
Treasure hunt
Scavenger hunt
Nature walk
Apple Day Juicing Process
A step-by-step guide
In the context of a “traditional” Apple Day, a typical juicing project is a four stage process.
Stage 1
Begin by washing the apples. Fill two large containers with clean water. Trug buckets are ideal for this. Tip the apples into one trug for their first wash. This wash removes most of the dirt, twigs and leaves from the apples. They then get washed a second time in the other trug, ensuring that any remaining dirt is removed. After their second wash, the apples can be moved into a stack of crates to air dry a little. At this point, some apples may need cutting on a chopping board. Large apples should be halved or quartered. Any rotten bits should be removed, but a bit of light bruising is ok.
Stage 2
The washed and cut up apples are moved into a scratter. ‘Scratting’ is the process of mincing the apples into tiny pieces for pressing. A scratter can be manual or electric.
Stage 3
The scratted apples are scooped into the apple press, which is lined with a netting bag. Place a clean metal bucket in front of the press to collect the juice, then close the press and wind it down as far as it will go to get as much juice as you can out of the apples. Remove the ‘pomace’ from the net bag and repeat the process.
Stage 4
When the work is done, the juice is poured into cups and enjoyed by everyone. Tip: have lots of reusable plastic cups on hand, or ask people to bring their own. If there is a surplus of juice, people may bring some home in a bottle.
Why not also try…
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Juice It Yourself
You borrow the kit for yourself, your family, friends, street or community group to make your own juice.
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Juice It With You
You bring your apples to one of the community hubs to make your own juice there, with their equipment.
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Juice It For You
You bring your apples to one of the community hubs and they press them and bottle the juice for you.
