Huge thanks to everyone who came along to Apple Day 2015 and helped make it such a fantastic day. Popular consensus is that it was the best ever and we broke all kinds of records:

Best scrump. Thanks to an awesome effort from our scrumping team, the tump was overflowing the day before Apple Day. We didn’t even need to send out a scrumping party on the day.

More volunteers than ever. Our best estimate is that over 80 people took part in this year’s Cambridge Apple Day, including something like 30 kids. Incredible to think that so many people could fit in our house and garden. It wasn’t just the numbers though, this year everyone got involved in a great team effort.

Most apple juice. Thanks to that amazing team effort, we created over 122 gallons of apple juice! Yes, you read that right. Over 122 gallons. Volunteers drank or took home 10 gallons of juice (not counting what the kids drank straight from the press), meaning that we have an amazing 112 gallons in fermenters brewing into cider. That’s almost 900 pints. 

Earliest finish. Despite having the largest harvest ever, a combination of more volunteers, better kit, and process re-engineering (led by our new head of engineering Tom), meant that we finished earlier than ever. At 4 p.m. we did the last pressing and we were all cleaned up and stowed away in a couple of hours. Even Andy C did some work (although not too much).

First experimental brew. In preparation for the Raspberry Pi Foundation birthday party in February, we’ve created our first ever “Raspberry Blush” cider. Basically we chucked a kilo of raspberries into the final press of the day. The juice tasted amazing, but we don’t know if it will translate into great cider. It’s a bit of an experiment, but if it works, we’re thinking of trying out a load of different fruit combos for next year.

Special thanks to Jane and everyone else who once again provided a great lunch. Thanks also to our friends the Balzanos who provided the bread rolls and some child labour (like them on Facebook here – for the rolls not the child labour obvs).

I’ve posted a selection of photos on facebook. Either visit the Cambridge Apple Day page (and remember to click Like) or follow this link: Cambridge Apple Day 2015 photos.

So that’s it for another year. We’re so grateful to everyone who came along. We love the apples, the juice, and the cider, but mostly we just love having an excuse to get together in the autumn sunshine and do something fun.

I’ll post some blogs to update on the cider making process over the next few weeks, and please don’t forget to come and pick up some cider.

Phil