Apple Press

[Ormally]

Can anyone help? I am on the lookout to hire an apple press just for one weekend in October (which is when they will all be very popular). I have helped with a similar venture just once before so am not completely new to it but have never undertaken a mass operation. It would be to make juice from a few trees with the intention of drinking it on the spot and storing a few bottles - so not a huge one, but more hefty than a tabletop one. I'm in the Essex/East London area. Thanks.

I think with any luck the apple tree in my garden is going to have a bumper year. I found out that you can actually take your apples to an apple day and have them pressed for free - lots of places do this. So nearer the time, I'm going to look into it! However, this may not be suitable if you have literally tonnes of the stuff or if it's a bit of a party-trick for a gathering (and what a great party trick it would be!)

Yes, it's hopefully a party trick! To connect the produce of a small and under-used orchard with the hospitality set-up it belongs to. Not really planning to sell it but to serve it when meals are held (if it's any good!)

I know of a couple of places that use presses but they are not all that near me and they are likely to be very much in demand in October I suspect. I might see how they are fixed anyway.

Just a quick question re apples( sorry I haven't got a press you could use)
But has anyone's tree started dropping apples yet? Mine seems to be shedding apples by the tonne! Is it a bit early?

Could be one of the following:

If the tree has lots of clusters of apples, shedding a few will thin them out a bit naturally, as they can develop slightly strangely and not get very big if they are quite crowded. However, depending on how old the tree is and how much rain you are having, it might need a lot more water at the moment. If there is a chance that it is not really well established, give it a bucketfull religiously when it is dry. Are the leaves like they should be, or a bit curly/crinkly?

I'm going to go and look at the leaves. Will report back. But the tree is ancient! We had it cut back slightly over the winter by a tree surgeon. I'm just worried that we have damaged it. It wasn't "hacked" it just got tidied up & had the shape tidied.

I have several old apple trees left from when the garden used to be a market garden. Mine are still shedding small apples way after the 'June drop' - I'm assuming it's because the ground is so dry and the trees are stressed.

We had so many apples to deal with I bought a Vigo press a few years ago along with the crusher to cut/mash up the fruit. It's fun to use but cleaning it all afterwards is a faff so best to do a lot in one go - the juice freezes well. The best juice was from properly ripe Bramleys (in October) - some of the 'eating' apples can be a bit syrupy.

I went and checked, the leaves look fine on the whole.
To my untrained eye I think it may be to do with clusters of fruit. Thanks for the advice.
I think ours is eating apples variety, so does that mean we could use them to juice or would they make me do this...

Apparently a good mix of different apples makes better juice, if you can throw a few more in. It has also been said that some that have 'sat' for a bit and been picked later make the juice sweeter, ie after October. There are some good blogs etc about how to do it, but the annoying bit is having to pulp or scrat them!

So nice to have a really old tree, I used to have 2 and they were no trouble. My current one was put in last year so I am forever wondering if it has got enough water!

Mine are still shedding but they still have way more left than usual so I think it's just that it's such a bumper year (so far, not to count chickens!) that they haven't finished yet.