Vigo helps you to make the most out of your fruit

For 34 years Vigo has helped keen kitchen gardeners, fruit growers and artisan drink producers to make the most of fruit. An increasing number of community groups and schools are also making their own apple juice.

Freshly pressed apple juice is a world apart from your average carton of supermarket juice. Many people are surprised to learn that apple juices can express as large a range of flavours as wines, and that cider made from 100% pure apple juice is really fruity and potent because it is not diluted with water like some ciders on the market. Reducing waste and making good use of our natural resources has never been a hotter topic and, when faced with apples on trees or windfalls, making apple juice or cider is a great way of using up gluts. Both desert and cooking apples can be used, even with bruises or minor blemishes. The whole fruit is used, including the core, so nothing goes to waste. Even the spent pulp can be fed to pigs or chickens, or put on the compost heap!

A small bush-like apple tree can produce 50kg (110 lbs) of apples* in an average year, which will make around 20 litres (35 pints) of delicious juice; the sort of tree you can walk under can give 250kg (550 lbs) of apples, making over 90 litres (158 pints) of juice.

Making juice is essentially very simple and good fun. Apples need to be crushed to the right consistency – manually or with a fruit crusher – and then pressed using a fruit press to release the juice. Vigo fruit presses and crushers are built to last a lifetime and many of the first presses and crushers sold 34 years ago are still in action today. See www.vigopresses.co.uk for Vigo Presses range of presses and crushers, tips, recipes and fruit-related features.

*Apple yields vary depending on variety and quality of apple.

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