Snappily done: Autumn juicing at Schumacher College

It is apple season at Dartington and across the UK. Look no further than Schumacher College to see what one can do with the mighty crops that we are lucky enough to enjoy on the estate. Staff and students have been enjoying eating the apples for some weeks now but on a Saturday in mid September the College opened for the pressing of over 1400 kilos of apples to produce over 650 litres of juice for use at College meals.

According to The Times, crops of apples in the UK are up 10% on last year due to the warm spring and rainy summer. This has produced more than the usual abundance of fruit for Dartington. Most of the apples picked were Lord Derby and Monarch varieties, both of which are technically considered ‘cookers.’ We also used some Bramleys, Katy’s and some cider apples. In case you were wondering, you can make juice out of any apples. The use of local crops for immediate consumption or by way of preserved goods is a very important part of shifting our society towards a more sustainable culture. This is true not only in the reduction of food miles and carbon dioxide emissions, but also through cultivating an understanding of food as a process in which we are all participants. Our consumption patterns can be of our own design, or they can be dictated to us by agribusiness and distributors. Either way, we are participants in the ecology of the planet and not merely ‘consumers.’ By engaging directly, we open ourselves to an understanding of food not simply as calories and flavours, but also as a source of well-being and community.

The picking and pressing of apples had additional benefits in that it allowed for a good deal of exercise for those involved. For the weeks leading up to the pressing, local volunteers, College participants and students had been enjoying gathering the apples as part of College led and independent forays. It was then a collective effort of about forty people that worked all of one day to turn the bounty into the juice that will be enjoyed by the College community for some time into the future.

The process is not a long one but has to be repeated dozens of times and requires several pairs of hands and lots of bottles. After picking, the apples were washed and then pulped. The pulp was then placed in muslin and several layers were hand-pressed between slatted wooden boards. There were rivers of juice running down from the boards into buckets. The juice was then pasteurised, bottled and stored. Oh, and a little bit was drunk during the process – but quite literally a drop in the ocean.

The apple picking and pressing is part of a wider scheme of work undertaken at Schumacher College to engage in the land around the College as a source of learning, community, and of course to provide goods for use in the kitchen and as snacks and beverages for the hundreds that pass through during the year. Justin West is the Coordinator of this sustainable land practice. While he grows traditional crops ranging from spinach to corn on the cob, he is primarily focused on designing perennial forest gardens. The vast majority of plants in the world are perennial, that is, they return each spring without reseeding or replanting. Modern agriculture has focused its gaze quite narrowly onto a small handful of annuals (crops which complete their lifecycle and perish in one season). While there have been advantages to these annual crops, there have also been disadvantages including a global epidemic of soil loss. Justin aims to expand upon the work of Martin Crawford and the Agroforestry Research Trust, here also at Dartington, in exploring the literally thousands of potential low maintenance perennial food crops. The aim is to design and grow edible landscapes which are aesthetically pleasing, low maintenance, edible, and inherently beneficial for wildlife, and for the soil which ultimately is our source of sustenance. Already after one year the salad bowl at Schumacher has transformed from a bowl of lettuce into a wild foray of nutritious leaves, flowers, seeds, and berries often numbering over 40 species in a given evening.

Thank you to all those that have helped with the picking and pressing in the last few weeks. Come and raise a glass of Schumacher College apple juice with us soon!

Justin West, Anna Lodge – Sept 07

Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.