Leigh Food Festival and Apple Pressing Day *CANCELLED*

Apple Press Day at the Plough

We have taken the painful decision to cancel our tenth Leigh Food Festival and Apple Press Day which was to be held on the 26th of September. The late frosts in May followed by one of the hottest and driest summers on record have resulted in what we can already see will be a really poor harvest.  Many of our trees  in the John Motion Orchard have no apples, with others having a few very small dry apples.

We have considered ‘pressing’ ahead anyway.  But apart from concerns about running the day at a financial loss after the initial outlay, we don’t want to disappoint visitors if there is not enough juice to sell.  It would also not be fair on Sarah and her team at the Plough, who have given us so much support over the last ten years.  Our stall holders too bring lots of their produce and we wouldn’t want for much of it to remain unsold because there isn’t enough footfall from people bringing apples to be pressed.

We do plan to set up the presses at the Recreation Ground on Sunday 27^th September for those who have still had a decent harvest, as we have done in the last few years.  More details will be put on our Facebook page about minimum amounts for this, or email us on leighapplegroup@gmail.com.