Well another ‘fine production’ comes to a close and the best apple weekend I have experienced so far. As they say its mainly in the preparation: the apples, the props, the activities, the ‘actors’ and a good script. In this case the apple show is headed by our Producer/Director Gardener in charge Linda with Katie her assistant sharing the load, with us volunteers plus key staff in supporting roles. So after months in the planning, gathering and setting up, the stage was eventually set October 19th for the Apple weekend show. This year’s activities, more than ever, included :{bee keepers marquee with display hive, apple peeling, apple collection & history, apple press, apple weight guess, apple catching, guess the apple variety, apple orchard conservation, juggling, ‘apple’ arts & crafts’, farmers market…} and required extra gazebos and marquees. The apple being the centre piece for what is a celebration of nature and gardening was, I’d like to believe, helped out by the first ‘Wassail‘ held at Snowshill Manor in January. Ok I can’t claim it contributed to the record 619 apple varieties in this years collection {427 last year} but the healthy crop of 2013 Snowshill Manor apples surely benefited. Its also worthy of a mention that Iain, garden volunteer, has over the years generated all the labels for each apple variety {gives name, use & origin and all in Ian’s database} and we are now approaching the impressive 1000 different varieties mark.
Of course to ensure a successful event you need a little luck with the weather, a receptive & healthy audience and the ‘actors‘ to deliver their best. Well we dodged a bullet with the weather given the wet spell we are ‘enjoying’ currently. So Saturday was great with an enthusiastic audience smaller than last year with less children, which meant more work at the apple press given it works best with willing ‘child labour’ to lighten the load on us but is a fun experience for them. Unfortunately we were hit with torrential rain for the last hour of an otherwise fine day but hopefully not too many of the audience suffered as a consequence. Sunday promised more of the same but again was mainly fine with a couple of showers late afternoon. The audience during the day was larger, and even better included more children, who were more than willing to get stuck into producing their own apple juice! Sadly I couldn’t prise myself away from the apple press to experience the rest of the activities but I think from my perspective both young and old, performers and audience had fun { or was it the intoxicating juice?, that Ashmead Kernel is a winner}. We may even have slipped in (a soft sell) some educational pieces on sustainability, nature conservation and countryside traditions plus I hope we improved our international standing with those welcome visitors from abroad .
So given the apple weekend is always a bonus for visitors {and players} why did I think this years was extra special. Well the weather wasn’t as kind to us as normal, there were fewer helpers available and yet everyone put on a good show and really got into the spirit. To conclude I have to hand out some credits, always a dangerous thing if I forget someone, but I think its worth it. Starting with the audience there were some great family groups who really got into the spirit, so much so I found it difficult to tell the children from the parents given the behaviours on display. On the international front a special mention to a family from Ukraine {it always embarrasses me that english is only their second language} and a combined family group from German who participated with great enthusiasm. On the ‘actors’ side you have to be impressed with Rosemary {I forgive her for not saving me an apple with one of her knitted holders} who came all the way from Wales to help, Marge with injured wrist and Reg on his birthday. As ever hats off to Linda {she can’t resist the pull of the event in spite of the pressure} and katie. Although the show, I think, is over for me this year there is still the final clearing up to do. So whilst I can look forward to next years event hopefully we’ll get some clearer weather this week so the team can dismantle the marquees etc without to much pain.
Lastly its worth mentioning that Snowshill Manor was still operating as usual and it was good to see the property managers, Dom and Hayley with their respective families joining in the fun as well.
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