Community 'Apple Day' at Bury St Edmunds allotment site
Members of the Bury St Edmunds community converged on the Cotton Lane allotment site on Saturday for a hands-on ‘Apple Day’.
The event was organised by the Cotton Lane Allotment Holders’ Association, in association with Suffolk Mind and Kingsgate Church.
Participants came together to chop apples and put them through a press.
Organiser Max Venmore-Rowland said: “At this time of year, there’s a lot of apples about. What do you do with them?
“We’ve brought in a press, people are cutting the apples and putting them to lots of different uses.
“Some people are making apple juice, some people are putitng the apples aside for cider.”
Kingsgate Church provided themed treats for participants in the event, including apple cakes and pies.
At the event, Sarah Manton-Roseblade, of Suffolk Mind, was presented with a cheque from a recent plant sale at the allotment site.
Suffolk Mind operates one of the allotments in Cotton Lane, and clients of the charity are able to use the gardens for their personal enrichment, and to improve their mental wellbeing.
Mrs Manton-Roseblade said of this: “We run three allotment projects across Suffolk, where people can come to regular groups based on the allotments.
“Through that, people with mental health problems - which could be anything from anxiety, depression, right through to chronic and enduring problems - can come along and take care of a piece of land.
“In turn, the piece of land takes care of them, through building a sense of community, gaining a sense of achievement, getting some physical exercise.”
Representatives from the Allotment Association emphasised the educational benefits of the project, and the event’s value to the wider community.
Mr Venmore-Rowland said: “There’s a lot of old concepts around allotment-holding.
“It’s relevant to every age group, and it’s important to connect young people with methods of food production.
“Milk doesn’t come out of a bottle, it comes out of cows - and we’re showing the same thing with apples here.”