Always apples gets to the core of the community

A fruity initiative which is partly funded by PCH has announced it has big plans for 2022, as the team look back on a fun-filled 12 months.

All Ways Apples was the creation of the Food Plymouth team, who have worked extremely hard to ensure that their neighbourhood events went ahead, regardless of the challenges posed by the coronavirus restrictions.

Building on the success of the ‘On Tour’ micro events in 2020, the group visited even more communities this year. Activities included tree care, harvesting, juicing and pasteurising.

Much of the freshly pressed apple juice was enjoyed at the events, directly from the apple press.

Fruit was harvested from all across the city and shared widely. The group worked with orchard volunteers, encouraging new people to get involved.

The team hope that in 2022 they will be able to return to Devonport for the main event, All Ways Apples Festival, while continuing to build community capacity through the group’s ‘On Tour’ activities.

One of the organisers, Tess Wilmot said: “For the last two years we have been unable to do the big All Ways Apples Festival at Devonport Guildhall due to Covid.

“So we took All Ways Apples on tour to visit as many community orchards as we could and share the abundance!

“We love it when residents get involved with the pressing and show us their community growing spaces.”

Between September 2020 and December 2021, the All Ways Apples team took part in 24 community apple events which included harvesting apples grown across the city and creating over 600 bottles of juice to be enjoyed by participants. Extra bottles were donated to community groups and food banks.

If you would like to get involved or attend a future event, please email: digfordevonport@hotmail.co.uk – or call: 07531 506481