There are lots of recipes but also information and advice on orchards, produce including cider, contacts etc. The Apple Source Book is available from Amazon at £10.19 and from the Apples and Orchards category page at the ukcider bookshop

The Apple Source Book
by Sue Clifford and Angela King with Philippa Davenport
for Common Ground
Hodder & Stoughton, October 2007 304 pages b&w illustrations

a philosophical and practical guide to
growing apples communally or for yourself
eating them simply or in style
whilst enriching both our culinary and cultural landscapes.

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Common Ground,
Gold Hill House, 21 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JE UK
+44(0)1747 850820

www.england-in-particular.info – local distinctiveness
www.commonground.org.uk – archive, arts and Apple Day
www.corrugated-iron-club.info – world wide sheds

A small scale Apple grinding and pressing demonstration had plenty of children helpers and provided fresh juice to sample.

View slideshow at Flickr or below

Organiclea’s scrumping project

It’s an abiding and alluring image in our culture, of fruit in such abundance that you can just reach out and pick it straight off the tree – but something we tend to associate with warmer climates or spiritual utopias, certainly not with inner city life.

Well the London borough of Waltham Forest may not be the Garden of Eden, but it does have apple and pear trees in abundance. And this year, a few tonnes more of that delicious fruit were picked and distributed around the borough rather than leaving them to rot on the trees or fall to the ground and attract the wasps.

Organiclea’s ‘scrumping project’ brought small teams of fruit pickers to local residents who were finding themselves unable to pick or make use of all the fruit on their trees. The project received funding to collect unwanted fruit from trees and distribute surplus locally through food and nutrition clubs and community market stalls.

During 2003 and 2004, Organiclea ran a pilot for the project, mainly picking from street trees or neighbours and acquaintances. But we estimated that around 1 in 4 detached or semi-detached houses had fruit trees in the garden, and that there was potential for a larger scale project. So this year we advertised widely in the borough and had a good response. We found that the people we picked from would tell their friends or neighbours about the scheme, and the community market stalls where we sold the apples or pressed them into juice also made good publicity for the picking side of the project.

Over 30 trees were picked from this year. They ranged from street trees and pub gardens, to residents who were housebound and unable to pick themselves, and pear-tree owners who were sadly not that keen on pears… We discovered a beautiful Victorian kitchen garden with orchard and hothouse but lacking the full-time gardener it would once have had. We discussed varieties, exchanged recipes, found out about the history of different areas of the borough and were inspired by the community connections that could be made – the yield was far greater than a few bicycle-trailer loads of fruit.

We picked with basket pickers, ladders, by climbing the trees, by shaking them and trying to catch the fruit.. we haven’t perfected our techniques and next year we will definitely invest in some nets and maybe hard hats too.. and try to involve a wider variety of people and groups in the picking.

We also learnt by our mistakes on storage – apples were much easier than pears, but there was a huge difference between varieties as to how well they keep. At one point we were certainly in danger of living up to our publicity strapline ‘more apples and pears than you can handle?’. But borrowing the East London Organic Gardeners’ apple press for a local food festival was a fantastic way to get lots of apples distributed quickly, and provide a lot of compost waste that could go back into the soil. We were also able to offer tasty local fruit to parents in a Surestart food and nutrition club to add to the organic vegetables we distribute there.

And of course, we took part in the celebration of apples on Apple Day at the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow. Many local residents added their trees to a map on which we are starting to identify the many varieties growing in the borough, and build up the scrumping project for an even greater yield next year.

Thanks to Martin of HarrodHorticultural for commenting with his article about Apple Day from last year, the original being here

There are a huge number of events this year, because apple day just keeps on growing and the cider wiki current events page for October points to the common ground apple day page where you can see them all listed county by county.

Now there’s also a shorter list of Apple Day events which include cider in some form, and which local event organisers can easily add to just by editing the wiki as normal. It’s not late to think about putting on a small apple day event even now. If you have a common orchard nearby you could just invite the neighbourhood round to admire the fallen fruit, learn a bit about apple varieties and then go for a meal afterwards with some cider or perry. Or make it a childrens party day with apple juice and a drop of real cider for the grown ups.

Myself, I’ll be making my way to Walthamstow Apple Day on October 13th and I do hope you manage to find an event near enough to wherever you live as well and support it on the day. If you do know of any events in October loosely connected with apple day and incorporating cider in some form then please add them to the Apple Day page.