We had a successful apple and pear picking trip to Portabello last Tuesday (13th october), thanks to Keith, and with the help of PC Guy Blacklock we were able to take the fruit picked to Shipston High School this afternoon. There is a blossoming Food Science after-school group there run by the Mrs Butterworth, Food Science teacher.
Win, whose husband has a small apple press, (see picture left) came to introduce the young people to apple pressing. As we didn't have any means of apple-pressing today, we took along an ordinary juicer so the children could compare the juice from different apples and pears. Mrs Butterworth is planning to use the remaining fruit in their cookery class.
The children seemed very interested and loved tasting the different flavours of apple and pear, including cider apple, which perversely was voted the best flavour!! and researched some information on the web. Next week Win and her husband will return to the after-school group to talk about proper apple-pressing and they aim to take a small press that can be hired from somewhere in Burford.
Mrs Butterworth was very interested in the suggestion that we follow up this exercise next year by arranging for a small group of interested children to take the whole process from picking to juicing. It ties in very well with other aspects of their curriculum including waste, recycling etc. PC Guy Blacklock was delighted with the result. There is a move to plant a community orchard in the grounds of the school at some point.Both the picking and the fruit juicing were photographed for the Herald, and the article should appear either next Friday or the one after.
Pat Harris
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