"Orchard Bounty": Roots and Shoots' own apple juice
Picking into the dark! 
A full load!From October to December staff and trainees worked extra hard to produce well over 700 bottles of our "Orchard Bounty Apple Juice". It began in early October when David and Greg took the van over to the Usk Valley in Wales to help our friends, David and Gayle Whittingham to pick the apples in their orchard. The apple harvest this year reflected the changeable weather - tons of Ashmead's Kernel but very few Bramleys. The van came back loaded with about a ton of apples - mostly Ashmead's but with a good number of boxes of Monmouthshire Green - a Welsh border specialty - and a few Bramleys. Gayle cooked us some other varieties for dinner! The pressing seemed long and hard this year - not only did we have the new intake of inexperienced trainees, we had two new members of staff to train in the process too! Despite this we pressed more apples than we have done for a year or two - over 700 bottles. The new Roots and Shoots Annual Review has a double page spread showing the trainees getting well and truly stuck in to the hard work. To purchase bottles of juice drop in to Roots and Shoots or come to one of our open weekend events during the year. The 2009 Annual Review should be available from the printers at the beginning of February.