Your Bleasby Wanger Is Ready For Christmas
Bleasby Parish Council
For those of you who are none the wiser, Bleasby Wanger was born in Glebe Field during October last year at the first ever Bleasby Apple Fest. Having collected apples from around the community they were pressed into juice and then a quantity made into a real still cider, Bleasby Wanger, named after the apple wanging competition enjoyed by many at the event.
The idea was to produce a cider in time for the 2020 Apple Fest and use it to raise funds via donations for a local cause and to help finance future festivals.
After a year of fermenting and maturing, it has now been pasteurised and packed into bag-in-boxes to help ensure it will keep through to the 2021 Apple Fest. Based on feedback from the few that have sampled it, there is some comfort in hearing it does resemble cider and it goes down quite well….the alcohol content is probably around 5-6%ish, so don’t say you haven’t been warned!
Due to Covid, the Apple Fest was cancelled this year and we now have a sizeable quantity of Bleasby Wanger without a home.
However, we would still like to try and raise some funds in the meantime, so have hatched a plan. We have chosen two local projects where any donations will be split equally. In total we are hoping to raise over £500.
First, is to support projects at Bleasby School which have some synergy with the Apple Fest. They have just applied for ‘orchard for schools’ funding and plan to create two orchard areas with grass sofas and fruiting hedgerow. The Key Stage 1 classes were renamed this year: Apple, Pear, Apple Blossom, Pear Blossom - collectively known as ‘The Orchard’. Following British Food Fortnight and ‘farm to fork’ topic they are putting together a cookbook of recipes with ingredients sourced as locally as possible.
Looking to the future there is great scope to get children involved with growing and collecting apples (and other fruits/vegetables) for the festival, scratting and pressing (we certainly can make more juice next time) along with generally building on the theme of using spent fruit to make produce.
Second, is to raise some funds to support future Apple Fests. Although supported by the Parish Council, we really could do with buying another marquee (two of the three we had last year were borrowed from Reach / Flower Pod), which in turn could also be used for other events. If these funds are ultimately not required for this purpose, they will also be donated to Bleasby School projects.
The immediate plan is to offer Bleasby Wanger on a collection only basis. We are suggesting a minimum donation of £3 per pint (or £6 per litre). The Wanger has been packed into 10 litre bag-in-boxes so, you can take on a full box or bring along your own clean container(s) to a collection point, fill up with as much as you like, make a donation and go and enjoy……then return again, as many times as you wish.
There are two ways of collecting; a little pre-taster can be had at the same time:
- you can email [email protected] and Mike will contact you to arrange a collection location and date (please include your name and a telephone number) OR
- Neil at The Waggon has kindly offered to keep some Wanger on tap ready for you to collect from the pub
As a little incentive, it is rumoured that Bleasby Wanger makes an excellent Christmas Mulled Cider – there are already a few fiery versions out there, so why not Wanger your way into Christmas then send in photos and recipes to the above email address and we will publish as many as possible on the community website.
Thank you in advance for your support and please keep an eye out for updates via the website, Facebook, pub and Bleasby News.
Happy Wanging!
Mike Fryer & Bleasby Events Group
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Bleasby, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire