Community Fruit Press Built

Holywood Men's Shed has completed the building of the Community Fruit Press.

The team that has been meeting on Thursday afternoons at Mitchell House Special School have now completed the building of the main press. Under the expert leadership of Brain Smith the work has been completed on schedule. There are still one or two small bits to be finished and some more equipment needs to be purchased, but overall the press is an impressive piece of work.

It is built from oak and is very sturdy. It should last for a long time! The aim now is to hand it over to the Holywood Transition Town who will arrange for its storage and for groups to book it out. Hopefully some sort of handover ceremony should happen during May. This will be in good time for the arrival of the first summer fruit. Clearly autumn will be the busiest time when the first of the new seasons apples and pears will be ready for picking and turned into healthy, pure fruit juice. If you are part of a community group, church, school, or even a group of neighbours with some surplus fruit why not consider booking out the press? It will make a great community activity and will end up with a really useful product.

Funding for the materials to build the press and other necessary equipment came from the Public Health Agency, with assistance from North Down Borough Council. Mitchell House School kindly made one of their craft workshops available for the building process. Thanks must go to all who were involved, including the men's Sheders who used their skills in building the community fruit press.