The cider press at the Millbrook community orchard is older than most of its volunteers. Built from oak and cast iron and restored three winters ago, it ran almost without a break at the weekend as families queued with buckets of windfalls and freshly picked fruit. By late afternoon it had produced about 380 litres of juice, poured into bottles that visitors brought from home.
The orchard was planted on a former allotment site twelve years ago and now holds 64 trees across 23 varieties, several of them old Asher Valley apples that had almost disappeared from nurseries. Volunteers look after it year round; harvest day is when the rest of the neighbourhood gets involved.
Wendy Tallis, who coordinates the orchard group, said the day had grown far beyond what the founders imagined. "The first harvest was twenty of us and a borrowed press," she said. "Now people plan their weekend around it. Children who came in pushchairs are back as teenagers, running the juice stall."
A lesson in grafting
In a corner of the orchard, a long trestle table hosted the day's grafting lessons. Anton Bakker, a retired nurseryman from the Asher Valley, showed small groups how to join a cutting from one tree onto the rootstock of another, a technique used to preserve varieties that cannot be grown from seed. Each participant left with a grafted whip to plant at home.
Every apple worth eating has been kept alive by someone who bothered to graft it.
Mr Bakker said interest had risen sharply in recent years, particularly among younger gardeners with small plots. He recommended dwarfing rootstocks for city gardens, which keep a tree to around two metres and can fruit within three years.
This year's crop was smaller than last year's, Ms Tallis said, after a late frost caught some of the blossom, but the fruit that survived was large and unusually sweet. The early dessert varieties were picked a fortnight ago; the cookers and late keepers were left for the day itself, so that everyone had something to pick.
Any juice left over will be pasteurised and sold through the local café, with proceeds paying for replacement trees. The group meets every other weekend through the winter for pruning and welcomes newcomers, with tools and gloves provided.