10 Months, From Pruning The Fruit Trees To Picking And Pressing The Fruit

Keiron Picking Good Quality Apples

The process of producing the 'Worcester College Apple & Pear Juice', from pruning the fruit trees to picking and pressing the fruit, takes about ten months. The fruit tree pruning began at the end of last year, see blog entry 15th December 2015 'An Early Start To Pruning The Fruit Trees', and continued until the end of January/beginning of February.

Ady Hand Picking Apples

Peter Selecting Quality Fruit

During the first two weeks of October, having seen the trees flourish and produce a good amount of fruit, the team picked the apples and pears. All the fruit used in the juice is hand picked, no windfalls, and are carefully placed in to trays for transportation to Waterperry Gardens for juice pressing. 

Callum Checking The Quality Of The Fruit

The First 18 Trays Ready For Transportation

This years harvest filled 48 trays which, once at Waterperry, were tipped in to two large wooden crates each containing 1/3 of a tonne of Worcester College apples and pears.

Crate 1, 1/3 Of A Tonne

Crate 2, 1/3 Of A Tonne

The First Of 711 Bottles Up For Sale

The two large crates of fruit were pressed, and the resultant juice pasteurised and bottled, producing 711 bottles for sale this year, the first day of which was yesterday, with another day of sale today. The juice will be on sale over the next few weeks when, hopefully, all bottles will have been sold.

Ali And Kieron Selling The Juice