The Friends of the Dartmouth Community Orchard made the most of a perfect Autumn Day for their annual Apple Pressing on Sunday.

Using traditional methods, they produced nearly 200 litres of juice which was unanimously described as, “delicious.”

Apples also took the centre stage on the chutney and cake stalls which provided delicious home-made produce by members of the Friends and for quiz lovers there was a chance to win a prize for spotting the fake names in a list of traditional apple varieties.

Additionally, Devon Wildlife Trust lent its support with a stall showing the value of Devon’s traditional orchards for wildlife.

The Mayor, Richard Cooke and his consort Fiona Walker joined the steady flow of local people who came to enjoy the fun and see the whole apple pressing process.

The apples that had been picked and stored over numerous weeks were washed and chopped by a team of knife-wielding volunteers, before being taken by the milling and pressing team, bottled and then ready for tasting.

There was no shortage of donations for the 1 litre bottles and some was pasteurised for the Food Bank.

Last year’s cider was available for tasting and a sufficient amount of juice was held back to make next years cider ready for the Friend’s Rogation Picnic in the Spring.

Peter Shaw, the Chairman of the Friends said, “It was Dartmouth at its best, with people coming along to enjoy themselves, pitching in to help, and enjoying the craic along the way, and all this lovely autumn sunshine. Couldn’t be better.”

“For the first time this year, we have had out own pressing equipment thanks to a generous grant from the Greggs Foundation. This is on top of the grant we received from Orchard Link’s ‘Growing Orchard Communities in South Devon’ project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The net result is that the Friends have all that’s needed to run a successful apple pressing event for the community.”

He thanked all those who had helped make the day such a success.

“It truly was a team effort,” he said. “we’re looking forward to next year already!”