It feels like Christmas has come early at our house. I’ve been given an apple press, and am juicing this year’s bumper crop of fruit. The kids and I are pushing barrows of apples, from our mini orchard to the kitchen.

Eric Robson, the chairman of Gardeners’ Question Time, talks endlessly about his apple press. His evangelism has converted me to presses, which are a wonderful way to use up those less-than-perfect fruits.

You can press the whole apple, but I always chop mine in half, to check for codling moth larvae. Once they’ve been removed, everything else goes in – even the odd bit of grass.

The apples need to be broken up before being squashed, and I copy Eric’s method of freezing them solid, then defrosting them thoroughly. Freezing breaks down the cells, making the apples easy to juice, and the mass of skin left over can be composted.

The resulting golden liquid is gorgeous. My plans to freeze some juice, though, have come to nothing, as we’ve drunk it all so far. However, there are still windfalls to collect, so we can make some more juice.

I’ll save a few apples for the birds – I’m happy to feed them, but I begrudge the wasps, which hollowed out far too many fruits in this year’s crop.

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