West Cumbrian villages celebrated this year’s apple harvest at a special event.
Lorton, near Cockermouth, held its first Melbreak Communities Apple Day.
The Melbreak Community consists of the parishes of Blindbothel, Buttermere, Lorton and Loweswater and the event, held at Lorton Primary School, with support from Friends of Lorton School, brought together people of all ages from across the local area.
Organised by Melbreak Communities Orchard Group and celebrating all things apple, the event featured an apple press run by the North Cumbria Orchard Group and a print workshop led by Marketplace Print Studio from Cockermouth.
Friends and family came together to play music, tell stories, organise games and enjoy a barbecue.
Prior to the event, volunteers, including Greysouthern YFC, collected apples, which otherwise would have been wasted, from around the Melbreak Community area.
The apples were free for anyone to enjoy and featured in National Farming Week celebrations at Little Monkeys Day Nursery, when children learned about growing apples and experienced the taste of locally grown varieties.
This activity was echoed at Lorton Primary School, led by Michelle Hughes of Low Stanger Farm, a local producer and participant at the Apple Day event.
“We were excited to bring the whole community together for the first Melbreak Apple Day,“ said Glenis Postlethwaite, chairman of Melbreak Communities. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to enjoy our local apple produce, support farmers and celebrate our community spirit, whilst also raising awareness of the good things on our doorstep and how we can avoid food miles.”
For more information about Melbreak Communities visit https://melbreakcommunities.wordpress.com/
The Melbreak Community Apple Day was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and is part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s emission reduction programme to make Cumbria carbon neutral by 2037.
