Glorious Autumn sunshine for the Apley Taste Off

Having picked the windfalls, Sybilla helped Francis reach an unblemished apple !

Gavin rolled up his sleeves to promote the Apley Walled Garden squash, pumpkins & green tomatoes

Lajina of Magic Masala demonstrated curry making with Apley pumpkins

Curious Apley cattle block the drive

Apley Farm Shop’s 2015 Taste Off (harvest food festival) was blessed with glorious sunshine today. Local producers chatted with local customers & offered them free tasters of their local products. Alongside, the Apley cake baker, Apley butchers, Apley delicatessen & Apley Walled Garden all put on fabulous displays. For the first time at Apley, we organised a programme of demonstrations which were well attended.

I began the day filming in Apley Walled Garden with AgWa Media, to begin shooting footage for our Autumn film. It’s so much fun being so creative & Agata’s always a delight to work with. I’ll look forward to Karen Hartnell-Beavis’s photographs of the Taste Off as I hardly had a moment to take any myself. It was truly a family affair today, as I’d recruited the essential help of our 2 eldest daughters who got some great hands-on experience. The survey they did is always so helpful – it’s always a pleasure to meet & chat with our customers. Before going home, Gavin, Tina & I had a speed meeting about the end-of-year decorations which I’m keeping as a surprise !

To prevent our ponies eating the windfall apples in the orchard, we all enjoyed the very last of the sunshine together collecting them, before having a TV supper to watch the rugby world cup game at Twickenham of England vs Wales. We all watched, exhilarated (watching any world class sport is always amazing, isn’t it), even though we all ended up feeling all rather disappointed !

Tomorrow, Sunday 27 Sept, is not only our September Apley Craft Fair, but also the day to tune in to BBC Radio Shropshire 12-1pm, to hear Apley Walled Garden’s Head Gardener Phil Allen answering questions on Gardeners’ Question Time.