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Steyning Community Orchard: Apple Day 2017 report

Apple Day 2017 report:
What a wonderful day was had by all. Over 400 people came to the memorial playing field orchard to celebrate our fourth apple day.

Unusually for us, the weather took a while to settle down and after a damp start the hardy revellers were joined by the many more and by the end of the four hours the orchard was packed with people enjoying the wonderful atmosphere and great activities.

We had three bands playing (Woodshedders, Fiddly Scrumpy and the Cheer Up Mollys) and the crowd were entertained thoroughly.

The children had plenty of activities to do and even had a story telling session too. We planted another tree in the orchard, kindly donated by Jacqui Stace and her family in memory of her husband, Jerry. The variety was First and Last , first recorded in Horsham in 1890. After the planting, we had the pleasure of announcing the Steyning Downland Scheme largest pumpkin competition and a pumpkin was kindly donated to the orchard and we had the fun of a surprise auction!

Fresh from the success of the pumpkin auction we had another surprise auction with the only things left from our produce stall – three jars of jam made from the fruit form the orchard!

Our volunteers worked tirelessly throughout the day ably assisted by Riverside Brewery, a face painter and a Peter a local artist selling wooden apples. With extra produce supplied by the Co-op and the donations from people who brought apples to be juiced we made over £700. A SCO record! A huge thank you must go to our Apple Day Coordinator Mr Roger Brown whose months of planning and organisation on the day ensured the whole event was a massive success. Thanks also to everyone who helped on the day and to everyone who came along and helped us celebrate!
See you next year!

Other information:

As autumn and winter is upon us, now is the time to look at pruning your apple trees. If you are happy to do this yourself, make sure you have a clean pair of secateurs and a good saw. Look to clear out any branches that are crossing over or rubbing on other branches. Remove any dead branches too.

Thin out a few of the branches so you can let the air flow around the tree.
Look to take out about a third of the length of the branches out, if the tree is getting too big.
But if it looks happy and healthy and is the right size for your garden then do not be afraid to leave it alone!
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