Autumn Fruit Baking Competition

Autumn Fruit Baking Competition At

PAINSWICK APPLE DAY

In St. Mary’s Churchyard, Painswick

Sunday SEPTEMBER 30^th 2012 12.30 -4pm

Come and take part in our Apple Day Bake Off. There are three classes:

1. Best fruit in a jar (eg. Jam, pickle, jelly)

2. Best Fruit bake (eg. Cake, pie, tart)

3. Children’s Fruit Based Open category

All entries must be brought to the tea tent between 12.30 – 1pm for judging at 2pm. We are delighted to welcome guest judge Silvana de Soissons, founder of The Foodie Bugle www.thefoodiebugle.com

Enquiries 812879. £1 entry. For terms and conditions www.painswickcommunityorchard.com

Prizes include an amazing baking course at food school ‘Thyme at Southrop Manor’

Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of these terms and conditions is a condition of entry
2. One entry per person per class
3. All entries must be hand made by the entrant
4. Entries must be brought to the tea tent in person for registration between 12.30 & 1pm
5. Judging will take place at 2pm 
6. Entries will sold in the tea tent for everyone to enjoy later in the afternoon
7. Winning entries will be announced at around 3pm
8. Children's open class is for children aged under 16 on 30th September 2012
9. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative
10. The judges decision is final
11. Winners will be invited to have their photographs taken for future promotion

the NEW 2012 Apple Day poster...

We are really excited to share with you this preview of our new Apple Day 2012 poster, designed exclusively by local artist and printmaker Andy Lovell. Andy was born in East London and studied illustration at Liverpool University. With work inspired by the natural world, many of Andy's screenprints and lithographs feature local scenes such as the Slad Valley. We are really grateful for his beautiful design, surely collectable for the future? 

2012 BIG APPLE DAY

Sunday 30^th September 

12.30-4pm 

St Mary’s Churchyard, Painswick 

(or Church Rooms if wet)

We look forward to welcoming you at the Big Apple Day. Please do bring along as many apples and pears as you can carry! Due to the shortage of fruit this year we need as many people as possible to join in our communal pressing on our magnificent oak press (and remember to bring a container to take some juice home in). 

If you can’t come along on the day and have fruit you would like to donate then please ring Greg on 812879 for collection or queries about fruit picking.

Enjoy a delicious lunch of seasonal stews, apple fritters and calvados cream with Painswick apple and pear juice, cider, apple brandy and mead to drink. There will be live music to entertain you and fun for all the family (apple bobbing, apple carving and games) as well as lots of stalls. 

You will also have the opportunity to meet the experts: tree pruning, cider-making, beekeeping and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

Perhaps you have a fruit tree in your garden you would like to have identified? If you bring along three of your own apples or pears (ordinary rather than perfect specimens please) together with leaves and stem, one of our experts will do their best to identify it. 

We are also in the process of creating a map of all current fruit trees in Painswick. You can help us by pinpointing your own trees or any communal trees you know of. You can do this either on the Big Apple Day itself or at other times in the Painswick Library where the map will be held. This map is based on an original orchard survey of Painswick c.1839, copies of which will be on sale at the Big Apple Day.

Calling all cooking enthusiasts to enter our Autumn Fruit-Cooking Competition! This is open to all with fabulous fruity prizes for adults and children under 12. It is divided into two categories: best fruit in a jar (jam/ pickle/chutney) and best fruit bake (cake/pie/tart). Entries on the (Big Apple) day please, £1 per entry. 

We would also be very grateful for any donations to our home-produce stall. Any enquiries please phone Iris on 812879. All proceeds raised go to World Vision Lideta (Ethiopia) and the Painswick Community Orchard Group.

  www.painswickcommunityorchard.co.uk

The Big Apple Day 2012

The 2012 BIG Apple event will take place on Sunday, 30th September and we are looking for volunteers to join us to make the day as big a success as it was last year.

If you would like to get involved then come along and find out more at the Shire's Bar (behind the Falcon Inn), New Street, Painswick on Friday 10th August at 7.30pm.

There are many aspects to plan from apple picking and pressing to food and music...

Any queries please contact Greg or Iris on 01452 812879.

Croft School Children Create New Orchard...

Painswick Community Orchard Group is celebrating after planting its first orchard in Painswick, thanks to funding from the Friends of the Croft School. 

On a wet and windy Wednesday (22nd February) 150 children at the School, pulled on their wellies and planted seven apple trees in their school grounds, one for each year group in the school and created their first school orchard. 

"The orchard is a wonderful addition to the school grounds," said Croft School headmistress, Ceris Towler. 

"The children are delighted that they have their own tree and have been bringing their parents to see them. As new classes join the school, we will add to the orchard and the trees will grow as they do through the school."

After the trees were planted John Rhodes, dressed up as a 'green man' and wassailed the trees to encourage good growth for the year ahead. 

"The orchard group will visit the school each autumn and bring our traditional oak press to make apple juice with the children" Said Emma Bradshaw of Painswick Orchard Group. "In the future the children will be able to drink their own school juice with their lunch!"

According to research published in 2011 by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, traditional orchard habitat has declined by 67% in the county, how fantastic that a school is helping to play its part in reversing this decline.  

The trees that were planted were all local varieties...

Ampney Red

A dessert apple from Ampney Crucis, it was recorded as a common variety in 1939 but now it is thought only one old tree survives in the village

Lodgemore Nonpareil

Raised by Mr Cook of Lodgemore, Stroud and introduced by Mr Clissold, a nurseryman who subsequently rented the garden where it had been started.  He propagated and sold it under the name of ‘Clissold’s Seedling’ A pleasant dessert apple, first grown in 1808

Puckrup Pippin

A dessert variety with a juicy, super acid drop flavour from Puckrup, near Tewkesbury

Rheads Reinette

A really nice dessert apple. Raised from seed by William Rhead (1852-1955) at either Elton Farm, Elton or Peglars Farm, Flaxley

Siddington Russet 

First discovered in 1923, grown and sold by John Jefferies & Sons nurseries in Siddington near Cirencester

The Croft School Orchard...

On Wednesday, 22nd February the children of The Croft School, Painswick will be planting seven apple trees, for each of the seven year groups at the school and creating a brand new orchard in Painswick.

Over the years the children will watch their orchard grow, pick the apples and press them to make apple juice. The creation of a new orchard will also encourage wildlife such as the lesser spotted woodpecker, noble chafer beetle and mistletoe to visit the school grounds, and help reverse the decline of traditional orchards in Gloucestershire.

"Orchards have declined by 67% in Gloucestershire over the past 30 years!"

State of the Natural Environment Report 2011 

The trees the children will be planting are local varieties;

Ampney Red

A dessert apple from Ampney Crucis, it was recorded as a common variety in 1939 but now it is thought only one old tree survives in the village

Lodgemore Nonpareil

Raised by Mr Cook of Lodgemore, Stroud and introduced by Mr Clissold, a nurseryman who subsequently rented the garden where it had been started.  He propagated and sold it under the name of ‘Clissold’s Seedling’ A pleasant dessert apple, first grown in 1808

Puckrup Pippin

A dessert variety with a juicy, super acid drop flavour from Puckrup, near Tewkesbury

Rheads Reinette

A really nice dessert apple. Raised from seed by William Rhead (1852-1955) at either Elton Farm, Elton or Peglars Farm, Flaxley

Siddington Russet 

First discovered in 1923, grown and sold by John Jefferies & Sons nurseries in Siddington near Cirencester

Once the children plant the trees they will be wassail them to encourage their strong and quick growth. The orchard creation has been funded by the Friends of the Croft School with the help from Painswick Orchard Group. 

Wassail...

A procession of fifty people, noisily walked through the village and down to the orchard on Saturday, 21st January for the first Painswick Wassail. The villagers taking part carried lanterns and banged drums to wake the trees up from their winter slumber. In the orchard a large fire roared, whilst the 'Green Man' John Rhodes, wassailed the largest and most bountiful tree in the orchard, toasting it with cider and hanging bread on it's branches. On one of the coldest nights of the year, the mummers arrived and performed a traditional play about St. George and everyone warmed themselves up with a warming stew.