We’ve had lots of interest in this year’s Community Press to be held on Sunday October 1st so here are all the details so you can plan your participation!

Here is the general overview of how it works –

Participants turn up to the cidery with their apples.  Apples can be any type, small bruises, scab and the odd worm hole are not an issue.  We just ask that you cut out any rot.  We measure the size of your donation and record it on our spreadsheet.  Under the supervision of our staff you can then get involved in the milling and pressing of the apples.  We ferment the cider and take care of the batch over the winter.  In the spring we all gather again to bottle the batch – labels and bottles are supplied by the cidery.  We then divide the batch with half going to the cidery to sell and the other half being split between the participants according to their contribution.

Our goal is to have as many people as possible take part with moderate quantities of apples rather than one or two large consignments by a few participants so we’re setting an upper limit for contributions.  Also, because of the level of interest, we’re going to be a bit more formal than last year and ask you to commit to a time when you’ll be arriving with your apples.  This will avoid lengthly waits to process your apples.  Another innovation on last years system will be giving credit for getting hands on.  Feel free to just drop off a box of apples if you like, but, if you stay and help out with the pressing and springtime bottling, we’ll double count your contribution for a larger share in the final batch.

This is a hands on event so come prepared to get messy.  Wear old clothes and slip proof footwear – gum boots are ideal.  Kids are welcome but please bear in mind there will be machinery in operation and parents need to be supervising carefully.  We don’t recommend dogs are brought down since it will be too busy and stressful for them.

If you’d like to take part please e-mail Rachel at rachel@fraservalleycider.ca with the following information –

  1. Name, contact phone number, contact e-mail.
  2. An estimate of the quantity of apples you’ll be bringing in pounds.  To help with this a standard box of apples at the grocery store is 20lb.  Please bring no more than 200 lb per participant but indicate if you have more just in case we don’t get a full take up of slots.
  3. Your preferred time slot – 8am-10am, 10am-12noon, 12noon-2pm, 2pm-4pm.  The more flexibility you can give us on this, the easier it will be to fit you in.

We will e-mail you back when we’ve assigned you a slot on the day’s schedule.

Thanks for supporting our cidery with this fun community event – we had a blast last year and produced some pretty fine cider too!