News and Features

Abigail and Ellen's Web page

I am Abigail, I am 7 years old, my sister is Ellen and she is 6. 

Our web pages are about our growing, cooking and eating.

Making Apple Juice

We went to West Bradley Orchards, with Mummy, Daddy and Nanny, to pick apples and make apple juice. (Go to the end of this articxle to see where you can pick and press apples)

We picked lots of juicy apples, all different types.  We put a few pears in too.

Pick one, eat one! We liked the red ones best.

We carefully chopped up the apples into quarters. Daddy helped because the knife was very sharp.

We loaded the chopped apples in to be crushed ready for pressing. The green handle turned the blades which crushed the apples.

The crushed apples in the barrel ready for pressing.

Ellen turning the press handle, see the juice being collected below

Abigail pouring the juice into bottles.  10kg of apples made 6 bottles of apple juice, plus a few cups to drink straight away.

The bottles were heated (to 72c for 30 mins) to kill all the bugs and make the apple juice last longer. This is called pasteurisation.

"Yum Yum in scrum, I loved it!", said Ellen "when I drank the apple juice it was brilliant."

It was really yummy! We kept it in the fridge and drank it cold.

Note from Mum

Picking apples together was a wondeful family activity, all three generations enjoyed the whole day, from selecting and picking the apples to drinking the juice with our picnic in the orchard and the next day with our Sunday roast.

It was great to see the girls tasting all the different typres of apples and learning in such a  hands-on way - all the grown-ups learnt something too. 

The press, made by Vigo, was ideal for small scale juicing, we are very tempted to buy one. Juicing is an ideal way to use up a glut of apples.

We also picked Bramley apples and the girls made apple sauce with their grandmother after school one day. We've frozen several bags to be enjoyed with roast pork during the Winter. Chef, Matt Tebbutt has just shown me how to cook pork chap - served in a roll with homemade apple sauce, it will make a perfect budget supper for bonfire night!

Thanks to West Bradley Orchards, home of Orchard Pig, we'll be back again next year!

Lots of Orchards are celebrating Apple day in October, click below to see details of events

Apple Picking and Pressing