Penarth Apple Day

Apple Day was first launched as an annual food awareness day in 1990 by the environmental charity Common Ground. Today (16 Oct), Penarth’s local environmental group Gwyrddio Penarth Greening (GPG) organized Penarth’s first Apple Day in Belle Vue Park.

Among the stalls was a display of different apple varieties, with notes on their history, and a comparison tasting of three stewed apples (Bramley Seedling, Tom Putt and Golden Noble). An apple press was being put to constant use, making freshly-pressed apple juice from local apples. You could buy apple chutneys and preserves, cider and apple wine and apple juice, and apples from an orchard “picked on Thursday.”

Hampton’s were selling half-a-dozen different types of apple cake and tarts. I went for a large slice of the Apple Date and Cinnamon Cake, which was generously topped with toasted nuts. This kept me going for the rest of my cycle ride from Dinas Powys.

La Crêperie de Sophie were cooking apple-themed pancakes.

In addition to organizing the Apple Day, GPG have been running the Harvest Penarth scheme. Anthony Slaughter of GPG said that this involves some complex logistics. Groups of volunteers have to be organized to visit gardens around Penarth that have unwanted and surplus fruit. They have harvested over 20 trees from residents who are happy to support the scheme. The idea is that the fruit is distributed to care homes and charitable organizations in the area. Some of the damaged and bruised fruit collected was used to make the chutneys on sale today.

PGP also organize the Penarth Food Festival:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/07/penarth-food-festival_17.html

PGP:
http://www.gpgpenarth.org.uk/