Apple Pressing Service

Dean and Kim who run the Market Garden at Ragmans are offering an apple pressing service this year.

If you’d like your apples pressed please read the information below and contact them:

Dean on: 07501 772781

Email: ragmansgarden@gmail.com

Facebook Page:  CLICK HERE

FAQs

What apples can you press?

You can make apple juice with any apple variety, cookers and desert apples. They are good mixed, producing a sweeter/more dry juice depending on the sweetness and mix of the apples. We can also press pears; pear and apple is delicious.

When do we press?

This year we will be pressing in October and early November

Minimum/Maximum Amounts

Maximum limit. We may be able to process commercial quantities of apples. Call us to talk through your requirements.

Minimum limit. We require a minimum of 300kg of fruit. This would be similar to 25+ shopping bags full. We appreciate it can be hard to estimate weight so feel free to send a photo of fruit either harvested or on the trees.

What you need to do:

Pick your fruit – the better quality the fruit the better the juice
No rotting fruit or badly bruised fruit please. We will discard any we find that is turning*.
Bag it up or put it into boxes or crates. Make sure you can lift them!

*IMPORTANT - Please note: If fruit is ‘turning’ or partially rotted (going brown) we will reject it. We may need to store the apples for up to a week from date of delivery, if it is in poor condition a lot of wastage can occur. We will carry out a final check and will sort fruit as we press but if the fruit is in a poor condition and is too difficult to sort we reserve the right not to press. Windfalls can be juiced if they are in good condition. Please ensure any animals grazing your orchards are out of the orchard for 6 weeks before you pick the fruit.

An easy way to tell if your fruit is ready is to taste it (!) and check the pips - they should be dark brown when the apples are ripe.

What we do:

We will wash the fruit, mill it, press it, bottle it (750ml green glass) and pasteurise it.

Fruit will be pressed in batches.

We don’t add anything to the juice – no sugar or preservatives. The pasteurisation process will preserve the juice for 24 months.

We will pack your juice in boxes of 12 to make storage and handling easier, otherwise please drop off your boxes/crates for the bottles.

Our juice process takes 2 days. We will call or message you when your juice is ready to be collected. We charge storage for juice left with us for over a week.

How much does it cost?

Please ring Dean for a quote:   07896 967807

Re using old bottles

Due to strict health and safety regulations it is NOT possible for us to re use your old bottles.

Organic or Biodynamic

Ragmans Juice processing site is registered with the local Environmental Health Service and with the Soil Association for producing apple juice to organic standards. If you have organic or Biodynamic fruit certification in place we can process your fruit separately but need to know this in advance.

Records

We keep records of all the juice we process. You are welcome to inspect our records.

  • Biofertilisers to build Living Systems Online Course

    Course Postponed until 2021 - sorry for inconvenience

    This course has been postponed, we will post new dates when available.

    Learn how to regenerate farm and garden systems using biofertiliser and mineral broths. 

    We have worked hard to take the benefits of a residential course into an online experience. Theory sessions will have ample time for discussion, slide shows and powerpoint. Practical sessions will be delivered through step by step video clips allowing ample time for interpretation. There will also be exercises for students to do themselves in-between course dates, making this in some ways more interactive than a weekend residential. 

    first session 9.30 - 12.45  Understanding ecosystem function and the role of microbiology, organic matter and minerals within living systems. This session gives the student a good theoretical base in order to understand the practical sessions that follow. In this way the preparations can be adapted to local situations if needed.  There are many biological products coming onto the market, the purpose of this course is to enable growers to make their own inputs saving money and producing superior products. The session will end with a homework practical to make a Lactic Acid Bacteria serum to study next week.

    second session 9.30 - 12.45  Microbes, ferments and biofertilisers. How to collect microbes to make Solid Native Microbe (SNM) mix - the ‘mother’ for many preparations. Using video and discussion we take you through the process of collection, preparation and storage of native microbes. We then use some mature SNM to make a biofertiliser ferment that can be used at any scale as a foliar feed. We end the session with a discussion about applications for biofertilsier use. Students are encouraged to make SNM as the homework for week 2 and there will be time for feedback at the beginning of the third session. 

    Third session 9.30 - 12.45 Plant health, pests, disease and the use of minerals. Enhanced photosynthesis and optimum system health depends on high levels of available organic matter, active microbiology in the soil and a full range of minerals. This session looks in detail at the limiting factors to healthy systems and how this is expressed as disease and pest attack. There will be a mixture of theory of plant metabolism, and video practicals showing how to make hot and cold mineral broths to build resilience in living systems. Students will be encouraged to make their own simple insect repellant as this weeks homework. 

    Fourth Session 9.30 - 12.45 we take time in this session to answer specific questions, using Q&A and breakout groups drawing together learning over the past three weeks. There is also space for two more ‘recipes’; using humus hydrolate and seed coating. We look at resources that are specific to your site and end the course by creating a fertilisation programme that you can tweak to suit your situation. 

    Who should attend: Gardeners,  growers and farmers

     "I have a good basis now on how to and what use can be applied. Excited to try"

    "Great all round picture of soil biology to support understanding of practices"

    "Can't wait to get started"

     

     To register interest - please email info@ragmans.co.uk - thanks!

     

    The Biofertiliser Handbook (ebook) by Juanfran Lopez will be available to all course participants included in course fee

    Please see Juanfran's website - https://juanfranlopez.com for examples of his work.


    We also stock Jairo Restrepo's book on biofetilisers

    The ABC of Organic Agriculture by Jairo Restrepo CLICK HERE


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