Why not maximise your bumper harvest by making it in to apple juice? Once the juice has been bottled and pasteurised, it will last for as long as you want and certainly until the nex
t harvest.
You can find out more about how to get your apple crop made into juice on our website http://www.parrettbrand.co.uk Follow the link to Juice Pressing Service.
The long HOT & DRY summer of 2025 has presented some interesting problems for anyone with an apple (or pear) tree in their garden. In most cases the trees are heavily laiden with small fruit. Add to this the fact that the drought stress has caused trees with the largest crops to continually drop fruit from the end of June until now, almost without break.
It is important to acknowledge that these aborted fruit are never going to ripen to juicy, sugar filled apples that make mature fruit so delicious and nutricious. Aborted while the fruit is still 100% starch, their destiny is to be eaten by slugs and snails to enrich the soil for next year.
This will add a problem to growers who sometimes wait until their crop has fallen or knock them off to harvest for pressing into juice. It is alway best to hand pick fruit for eating, storage or pressing but if you are going to pick fruit up off the ground, NOW is the time to rake away those immature fruit, so that they don’t contaminate the fruit harvested to make your delicious juice!
FAQ
Q. What can I do with all the fruit that has already dropped on the ground?
A. Unfortunately, this fruit is immature and has been aborted by the tree because of stress, and in an attempt to take other fruit to full term. Either leave this fruit for the slugs and snails or rake them out of the way if you intend to pick fruit off the grass at harvest time.
Q. My apples look like they are ready to harvest really early this year.
A. STOP! Take a look at what is happening to the fruit on the tree. Don’t be distracted by the large quantity of fruit on the ground. At the moment, all the early varieties (Vistabella, George Cave, Discovery & Katy) have been about 7 days earlier than last year. Most apples brought to us by customers are picked FROM the 1st week in October (tree riped fruit). Those apples will probably be ready FROM the last week of September this year. When the weather finally breaks, that gap will narrow. It is important NOT to pick fruit destined to be juiced too early. Sugars will not be fully developed and flavour will be poor. This is a vintage year for sugar and flavour, so hold your nerve.
Q. Do I need to book my fruit in for pressing?
A. We need to know a few days in advance of you bringing fruit
so we can label a bin for you. We are considering asking customers to fill in an online form, as admin is going to be a challenge this year with lots of new customers. This will be to make sure that we know how much fruit you are bringing and how you want it packed or labelled.
Q. Will you be pressing fruit in the order that it arrives?
A. Not necessarily. To mainain efficiency, we need to match a batch of customers that will give us a day’s bottling. This means that larger quantities will be given priority and be matched with a few smaller customers to make a full day’s work. We will be monitoring fruit quality and ripeness to maximise the quality of juice that we can make for our customers. This will not necessarily match with a first in, first out policy. You will need to trust us to do the best job we can for you.
Q. How soon will I get my juice back.
A. This year looks to be the busiest ever for pressing (remember we have our own harvest to cope with too). Pressing juice for customers involves three separate processes. First pressing, then pasteurising and bottling and finally washing and packing. This year we will be giving 100% precidence to pressing, pasteurising and bottling, to make sure that all fruit is pressed at the optimum time and that no one is dissapointed (we hope!). This means that washing and packing will be done as and when we have the capacity to do so. This may mean that there is an extended gap between your apples being deposited at the farm and you being contacted that they are ready for collection. This does not mean that your apples have been sitting around, it will be becasue we have been unable to wash and pack your bottles.
Q. Can you store my apple juice on the farm until I need it?
A. While it might look as if we have a lot of room, we are exceedingly short on space during the pressing season. We would prefer it if you could collect as soon as practicable when your juice is ready. Any juice that overstays it’s welcome will be charged at £5 per pallet week. You will be informed before storage charges commence.
Q. Can we choose to have Green or Clear glass this year?
A. To keep costs down, we have taken advantage of a good offer on clear bottles. There are currently no green glass bottles available on the farm. I can buy them in, but at a cost of 18p per bottle on top of the published prices on the website www.parrettbrand.co.uk If you insist on green bottles, please warn me in advance as I have to order them a pallet at a time.
As ever, please pick and handle your fruit carefully for maximum results. Bruised and rotten fruit make inferiour juices and all rots have to be removed before pressing in any case. Fruit can be picked off grass, but only if absolutely necessary. Fruit contaminated with soil will be removed before pressing. If you have included pears in your mix, please make sure to let me know. Pears rot very quickly and are not always ripe at the same time as the apples. Include pears with caution! Pears do not make a good juice on their own as the juice will be very thin and sweet and is not always easy to pasteurise effectively. Pear juice is generally mixed with
about 20% of an acid variety of apple, such as Bramley.
I wish you every success with this year’s harvest. The above has been prompted by a large number of enquiries by customers, all asking the same questions, “can I use the apples that have fallen?” and, my apples are ripe already”. I suspect that most people are asking themselves the same questions as this is an extraordinary year.
Good luck and happy harvest.
Jonathan
It really does look as if we
