PRESS RELEASE

12 October 2009

AUTUMN FEST AND APPLE DAY
Nearly 1000 apples were pressed, peeled, tasted at Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s Autumn Fest and Apple Day on Sunday afternoon (11 October) at Bickley Hall Farm, home of the Trust.

An apple press squeezed and squashed its way through over 500 apples to produce delicious fresh juice from apples donated by CWT staff and volunteers from their own gardens.

Meanwhile the competition to create the longest apple peel was hotly contested – and won by Harry Mason from Marbury, aged 10, who operated the mechanical peeler to deliver a peel measuring an amazing 304 centimetres from a single apple. His result was officially recorded and will be sent in to the national finals run by Common Ground: last year’s winning peel measured 240 centimetres so Harry could be in with a great chance at the 2009 national title!

Also on display were 10 different apple varieties from Windsor’s Apples, Willington Fruit Farm, which were offered for tasting. These included well known varieties such as Cox’s Orange Pippin, English Golden Delicious and Royal Gala, as well as lesser known Chiver’s Delight, Egremont Russet and Belle de Boskoop. The Russet (a dessert apple) and Boskoop (cooker/dessert) proved particularly popular with the samplers.

Other activities included Autumn Artwork, various nature trails and a ‘Food for Free’ display looking at nature’s harvest.
Visitors were also invited to explore the recently reinstated orchard which was planted by Cheshire Wildlife Trust at Bickley Hall Farm as part of its conservation farming programme: the orchard comprises rare local heritage varieties, with trees sponsored by companies and individuals as part of the Trust’s ‘Adopt a Tree’ programme, while the entire Orchard is sponsored by Cheshire Life magazine.

Jacki Hulse, Head of Estates and Land Management, explains, “As a result of changes in land management, orchards face an uncertain future, with two-thirds having been lost in the last forty years. So serious is the situation that traditional orchards were added to the Biodiversity Action Plan as a priority habitat. One of our aims is to make the orchard at Bickley Hall Farm as accessible as possible to our members and the community, so that as well as creating an orchard we can teach people about our farming heritage.”

Currently the trees are still saplings and so bear little or no fruit but it is hoped they will supply apples for tasting on Apple Days at the farm in years to come. Anyone interested in sponsoring one of the trees can find out more from Cheshire Wildlife Trust on 01948 820728. For £25 you will receive a certificate of adoption and a six-monthly orchard update.

-ENDS-