Apple Day

Each season has its highlights, and one of the highlights of the Autumn is the Apple Day that is held in our Community Orchard. Most of the apples have been picked and juiced, and it is a time to look back over the season, celebrate the harvest and raise money to pay for any tools that are needed in the following year.




In the community orchard we have over 60 fruit trees. These include apples, pears, plums and we grow over 30 varieties of heritage apples. Visitors and volunteers always enjoy tasting the different varieties and choosing their favourite. It is amazing how different the apples can be in taste, colour and size.


The apples have some great names too, a  local song has now been written so we can remember some of the names! Slap-ma-girdle, Golden Ball, Hoary Morning and a Buttery D'Ore. You can see by this clip that the chorus is quite catching!.




The view of the orchard before the event started.



Pressing the apples

It has been a strange type of week weather-wise, the first thing to appear was these strange  dangerous Portuguese Men Of War appearing on the beach......


Hurricane Ophelia passed through - initially everything was very still and then mid morning the sky  turned red and orange- (we later learnt this was due to air and dust from Africa), then the wind got up creating huge waves but with high temperatures and no rain.



This weekend Storm Brian arrived which bought more high winds and heavy rain. Luckily it didn't cause too much damage here but sadly it did affect a huge event we had in the Bay this weekend.

We had the ' Onion Johnnies ' visiting from France and they have spent months planning it and had spent all week setting up marquees, only to have take them down because of the wind. It was even to dangerous to leave their boats in the harbour and had to move them boats further down the coast to Dartmouth. All their arrangements had to be changed but they still managed to smile and give everyone a good time. With all of the issues with Brexit, it seems even more important to join together to celebrate old traditions and make new friends.



The Onion Johnnies were a familiar sight in England prior to the 1970's, see my previous post here. We are now all stocked up with onions and garlic and the taste of them is so much better than from the supermarkets!



Hope you have all had a good week and those in the UK have not been affected too badly from the storms. Take care, thank you for visiting me.

 Sarah x

Comments

  1. It is surely magic there Sarah. Apple festival...I just wish I could have a bite of each one. Portugese Man of War is plentiful in summer in the Gulf of Mexico. Who'd have thought they would be way over there.

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    1. I had never seen the Portguese Man of War before, that's interesting to hear that they are resident in the Gulf of Mexico. Sarah x

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  2. The song was great! Such a great event at the orchard!

    Man of war showed up in Nova Scotia this year too. Ocean temperatures are changing for sure!

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  3. This is a lovely post Sarah, very interesting. I enjoyed learning about the Onion Johnnies and have just looked them up and read an article about them. Thank you for a great read.

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  4. I thought of you as we zoomed past Bridport on Saturday. Sad that the onion event had to be moved. What a lovely idea to have an apple day, it’s time Jersey had a community orchard. Have a lovely week. B x

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    1. What a shame you couldn't stop to say hello. I'm surprised that Jersey doesn't have any Community Orchards. Sarah x

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  5. Now THIS is what I call an autumn festival! Oh how wondrous it is to see the harvest....that sea creature on the beach....that is horrific!

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  6. That is a shame about the weather spoiling your event! I'm glad they managed to work around it as best they could. I love the "community" that you have.

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    1. We do have a wonderful community spirit in the town,and one reason why I don't have so much time to blog! Sarah x

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  7. This post is so much fun . . . wish i was there:)
    Have a lovely day!
    Connie :)

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  8. So incredibly beautiful!!! Love your shots of the ocean! Wish I was right there, beam me up Scotty! Very interesting learning about the Johnnies, hope the tradition continues!

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  9. I enjoyed the song! We just returned home from Fall Break at the beautiful Florida Panhandle beach of Seaside. We had gorgeous weather!

    Hurricanes are scary. We who live near the Gulf Coast in the US keep "itchy underarms" from June through November each year during hurricane season.

    Stay safe from the storms, and I enjoyed this fun post!

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  10. I love the names of your apples and your apple festival songs...I think festivals give such a sense of community, so it is good to see the Onion Johnnies looking cheery despite the weather dramas. There is just no substitute for home grown garlic I think,(and home grown everything really!) we try to grow enough garlic for the year. Lovely to see your autumn activities.

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  11. How interesting - so sad, that I not could be there. Only for a day, maybe two, beamed!

    Sigrun

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  12. I definitely want to try a Slap-Ma_Girdle.

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  13. I would love to know how it got it's name. Maybe a clue is that it is a cider apple! Sarah x

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  14. Oh Sarah, what a lovely post.
    Amazing amount of different apples, I love events like this.

    All the best Jan

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  15. Love apple season. There is no better way to eat an apple, freshly picked.
    So sweet of you to say that. I am enjoying another year of these Mexican Sunflowers. Thank goodness we had them supported. We had high winds and they did not fall over this time.
    Regarding the Pincushion flowers, yes, all came in one seed packet. Hubby and I were very surprised. We expected colors in lavender and maybe white.
    A beautiful photo of the ocean cliffs, just amazing. Thanks for the visit and have a wonderful day.

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  16. I went to an Apple Day at Erddig and there was a botanical artist there painting incredible pictures of the apples. My favourites are definitely the Russets. I like the look of rosy red ones but much prefer a green apple or a Braeburn which has a slight red ting. Gorgeous pictures of your apple day. x

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  17. Your Apple Day looks great fun and I very much enjoyed the song. Are they local musicians?

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    1. They were lead by our local story teller who wrote the song and they just got together for produce something for Apple Day. I'm sure it will be the first of many performances! Sarah x

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  18. Oh dear, I'm afraid that apple tune is a little too catchy. I'm going to have "slap-ma-girdle" running through my head all day. It's wonderful that the tradition of Onion Johnnies continues, but unfortunate that the weather was do disruptive. That photo of the waves is spectacular.

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  19. Lovely post about apples! The pictures from the beach are just AMAZING! Would love to be there, feeling the the wind and the sea...
    Love from Titti

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  20. Sarah - What a lovely post. Apple Day looks like a fun event. I'm curious about the Community Orchard - does that mean locals take part in growing and harvesting? I remember the Onion Johnnies from that other post. So sorry the weather made things a little difficult, but glad for the most part all is ok. The storm photos at the rocks are so beautiful. I enjoy seeing what storms wash ashore even the man of war - oh those things are wicked. Thanks for sharing. xo kim

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    1. Yes Kim there is a community group that is involved in looking after the orchard, anyone is welcome to join in and help on the specific working days. Sarah x

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  21. What a wonderful community you're in, and it is very impressive growing so many heritage apples. It must be so satisfying having a view of the sea, it's a vague dream of mine but I don't know if I'll ever achieve it.

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