1. It is an excellent way to use up your surplus apples when you’ve got enough in store and your freezer is full of stewed apple!

2. They are your apples and you know their origin. They are of good quality and probably chemical free. The juice you make will be pure and fresh pressed (not made from apples that have been sprayed with the chemicals used in non-organic commercial orchards, and not made from apple concentrate shipped half way around the globe).

3. You can experiment with different varieties of juice to get an amazingly wide range of flavours, rather like wines:

• Apple varieties that have a good balance of flavour, sweetness and acidity are excellent for single variety juice, such as Discovery, Annie Elizabeth, Falstaff, etc.
• Why not try juice made from cider apples? Our West Country neighbours love it and we have a variety of amazing products that will help you on your journey!
• Some apple varieties are better when blended to create a really tasty juice – we like sweet Cox blended with tangy Bramley but the choice is yours!

4. Pure apple juice has proven health benefits. The old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” still holds fast! As one of your ‘5 a day’ fresh pressed juice is high in vitamin C and also contains vitamin A. Pure apple juice also contains minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants, which research has shown help protect against cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease, while improving memory and bone density. Juice is quite a power-pack of good things from a natural source.

5. Apple juice really is easy to make and juicing equipment is simple to operate:

• Collect your surplus apples.
• Wash them in fresh water.
• Crush in an apple crusher (we recommend the Speidel 2.2kW Apple Mill, but you can check out our entire range to see what suits you) or manually by pounding in a bucket with a length of clean timber – chopping isn’t enough and liquidising is too much!
• Press the crushed apples in an apple press. Our 6 Litre Hobby Fruit Press is very popular, but you can have a look at our full range here.

6. You can drink your juice straight off the press, keep it in a fridge for up to 3 days, or, for long-term storage, freeze it in cartons or pasteurise it. Store in strong glass bottles or bags of suitable bag in boxes. Buying good quality apple juice can cost £2-£3 a bottle or carton, so making your own all helps with the weekly budget!

7. It needn’t be costly. If budget is limited, you can start with a small amount of kit and then build it up as you go along, for example, buy the best press you can afford and crush the manual way as a stop-gap until you can afford to buy apple crusher. Our Standard Apple Juice Kit comes with everything you need to make a start. Or, for creating your own home brew, try our Cider Making Kit with 12 Litre Hobby Press.

8. Apple juicing is a fun and fulfilling activity. It’s also a great excuse for a get-together with family, friends or neighbours. From gathering the apples, to using the equipment (children must be supervised), to sampling the juice as it runs off the press, there’s something for everyone to do. Many community groups have been set up as a result - old orchards have been restored, new orchards planted, and Apple Days have been hosted. The more the merrier!

9. Nothing is wasted ...the spent apple pomace (the leftover crushed and pressed apple residue) is rich in nutrients and is an excellent addition to your compost heap. Layer it with other vegetative waste so it can rot down to provide fine manure for vegetables and soft fruits. It’s also great food for the birds.

10. Turn it into cider! Last but by no means least, once you have your freshly pressed juice you can turn your hand to a drop of cider making. It’s one more, and some would argue the best, traditional way of preserving juice! Making cider is really quite straightforward. With a cider making kit of fermenters, yeast, hydrometer, campden tablets and syphon tube, you could have your own fruity and potent cider in a few months’ time. Cider-making is the root-source of many a good party: at pressing time in the autumn, blossom time in the spring; supplying refreshing drinks in the summer and, of course, for wonderfully jolly Wassailing parties in the dead of winter!

Why not join us for our upcoming cider making courses? Check out our Apple Pressing and Cider Making Workshopon Saturday 31st of August and Friday 6th September 2024. Or test your skills with our Advanced Cider Making Course on Saturday 16th March and Wednesday 20th March 2024. See you there!