Our third visit to St Joseph's Orchard to help the Friends group was the last for apple juicing. I arrived late from a morning session and there were already half a dozen sacks at the top of the hill and another dozen by the fence, lots of them bramleys.

I briefly got to meet some of the brave fleet of pickers who'd been there since the morning. All in, 14 people showed up over the course of the session. Then I got stuck in to picking mostly windfalls from the spartan row. Loads of lovely crisp and juicy apples scattered along the floor. Tim, John, Martha and then Sue helped us for another hour or two, going along the rows. They also have joybells, golden delicious (not doing well), and arthur w barnes - at least those are the ones I know about. The summer hasn't been kind, but the old trees know what they're doing.

Great to briefly meet Sean on his way out, and Martha, both of whom signed up through the Daniella's list for the Barnet Community Harvesters. Tim reckons they've picked nearly 2 tons of apples this year, with another 2-3 still in the orchard. Not all are ready yet, but he'd like it to not go to waste. So BCH may organise further picks through to bring apples to foodbanks and the North Finchley Community Grocery and Goodgym will do our best to help!