Last Saturday was our annual Apple Day here. It’s always a fun day, with friends, family and neighbours coming along to help with processing the apples we picked a couple of weeks beforehand.

No one has to help. It’s really just an opportunity to get together and celebrate the apple harvest.

Nevertheless they do, with teams washing and chopping apples, some doing the scratting (essentially mincing them) and others transferring the resulting pulp to the old Italian wine press.

Then the apple juice starts to flow. Such a wonderful sight (and sound) and the flavour of the pure, unadulterated juice is amazing.

Of course workers need a little something to eat and drink along the way, so adults have hot mulled cider made down in the ex cooking school space.

There’s savoury snacks too – dozens of sausage rolls and mini quiches, homemade (by neighbour Isabel) spring rolls, a couple of jam pans of different soups and slabs of fresh baked focaccia.

Traditional for Apple Day, and simply the best, individual pizzas baked in the outdoor pizza oven Robert built years ago.

Cakes too – Lumberjack and slabs of apple shortcake (crostada), little caramel cream tarts (by Colette) and much more besides.

The apples were exceptionally juicy this year, so once the kegs for cider were filled, there was a lot of juice left over (4 bucketsful).

No way it could be let go to waste, so next morning Robert and I set to work to bottle and preserve it. (It was a bit of a battle to find enough jars.). Now the precious juice will hold for months, years even.

One jar didn’t seal but that’s OK. I have strained it through muslin and it will become apple jelly within the next few hours.

A couple of crates of apples remain – these will be peeled, cored, chopped and then preserved in jars in a light syrup, to stand at the ready for all manner of baking.

There’s certainly a great deal to celebrate about the humble apple.

Now I can’t wait to do it all again next year.

Thanks to all who came along- you are simply the best!