Abundance Wimbledon Newsletter
October 2024
Welcome to the last Abundance Wimbledon newsletter of 2024
THANK YOU
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our volunteers, donors and visitors, you made Fruit Day another successful day! The sunshine helped too. We raised over three and a half thousand pounds which will be distributed to local charities. As well as 2024 being a bumper year for apples, we had many new offers of fruit and an enormous 2600kg of apples was picked over the summer and continued after Fruit Day. This was donated to local charities or made into delicious produce and juice. We had a few new items for sale this year, including membrillo from early quince.
The Mayor of Merton, Slawek Szczepanski, was our first visitor. We sold lots of the home-made produce and many people stayed to listen to the Colliers Wood International Ukelele Orchestra, joined in with the activities for children and visited the various stalls in the garden.
If you would like to view pictures from the day please visit The Abundance Wimbledon Facebook page by clicking the link here
If you do not have a Facebook account and you had a photograph taken by our photographer, please do contact us by using the link below.
I had my photo taken
CHOPPING.... AND CHATTING
Although we distributed fruit to over 30 different organisations, we decided to make a dent in our apple mountain by organising three "chop and chat" sessions over the summer. Volunteers came together to prepare chutney and apple crumbles, giving us more delicious produce to sell on Fruit Day. These informative and fun sessions may well be repeated next year so look out for the dates - all new cooks welcome!
DOUBLE WINNER
Congratulations to Dean, winner of both the raffle and the longest peel competition. The raffle prize was a basket of jam, cake and honey. There was a unique badge for the winner of the longest peel competition. The local Girl Guides ran both the raffle and the competition with great aplomb as well as selling some delicious cakes.
ABUNDANCE IN NUMBERS
Over the summer 55 different homes invited us into their gardens to ensure their fruit was picked and put to good use. 43 volunteers gave up their time to either pick the fruit or drive it to many different charities and organisations. 12 volunteers made cakes, crumbles and biscuits and a further 17 jam, marmalade and chutney. Alongside this an army of volunteers worked at Fruit Day, making it such a success. Thank you again to everyone.
APPLE PIE MAKING WITH BROWNIES
Apple pie making with children is a popular activity at Fruit Day and for the third year running we've repeated it with a pack of local Brownies in October. This year we were delighted to have 21 youngsters from the Raynes Park pack. With our help and guidance they prepared and made delicious apple pies to take home and bake.
COMPOSTING THE APPLE DEBRIS
Every year at Abundance Wimbledon we try to be just a little more sustainable!
Last year the remains of the apples crushed for juice were taken to Tamworth Farm Allotment Society where one of our volunteers, JP, has an allotment. It worked so well that this year Jane and Martin, who run the Apple Press, arranged with JP to meet the allotmenteers at the end of the day. They were very happy to take the apple debris for their compost heaps.
Can you spot one of our founders, Joyce, in the photos below? We were so pleased that she returned to spend the day with us!
OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER
We will be back in touch in 2025, when we will look forward to our next year of fruit picking and our ever popular Fruit Day.
To get in touch with Abundance Wimbledon please click on the 'Get in touch with Liz' below.
Best wishes and sincere thanks from us all,
Juliet and the team at Abundance Wimbledon xx
Get in Touch with Liz
p.s. You can find all our past newsletter issues here, and if you're not already subscribed, you can subscribe here. You can also find us on social media: Instagram, X (Twitter), and Facebook.
THANK YOU
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our volunteers, donors and visitors, you made Fruit Day another successful day! The sunshine helped too. We raised over three and a half thousand pounds which will be distributed to local charities. As well as 2024 being a bumper year for apples, we had many new offers of fruit and an enormous 2600kg of apples was picked over the summer and continued after Fruit Day. This was donated to local charities or made into delicious produce and juice. We had a few new items for sale this year, including membrillo from early quince.
The Mayor of Merton, Slawek Szczepanski, was our first visitor. We sold lots of the home-made produce and many people stayed to listen to the Colliers Wood International Ukelele Orchestra, joined in with the activities for children and visited the various stalls in the garden.
If you would like to view pictures from the day please visit The Abundance Wimbledon Facebook page by clicking the link here
If you do not have a Facebook account and you had a photograph taken by our photographer, please do contact us by using the link below.
I had my photo taken
CHOPPING.... AND CHATTING
Although we distributed fruit to over 30 different organisations, we decided to make a dent in our apple mountain by organising three "chop and chat" sessions over the summer. Volunteers came together to prepare chutney and apple crumbles, giving us more delicious produce to sell on Fruit Day. These informative and fun sessions may well be repeated next year so look out for the dates - all new cooks welcome!
DOUBLE WINNER
Congratulations to Dean, winner of both the raffle and the longest peel competition. The raffle prize was a basket of jam, cake and honey. There was a unique badge for the winner of the longest peel competition. The local Girl Guides ran both the raffle and the competition with great aplomb as well as selling some delicious cakes.
ABUNDANCE IN NUMBERS
Over the summer 55 different homes invited us into their gardens to ensure their fruit was picked and put to good use. 43 volunteers gave up their time to either pick the fruit or drive it to many different charities and organisations. 12 volunteers made cakes, crumbles and biscuits and a further 17 jam, marmalade and chutney. Alongside this an army of volunteers worked at Fruit Day, making it such a success. Thank you again to everyone.
APPLE PIE MAKING WITH BROWNIES
Apple pie making with children is a popular activity at Fruit Day and for the third year running we've repeated it with a pack of local Brownies in October. This year we were delighted to have 21 youngsters from the Raynes Park pack. With our help and guidance they prepared and made delicious apple pies to take home and bake.
COMPOSTING THE APPLE DEBRIS
Every year at Abundance Wimbledon we try to be just a little more sustainable!
Last year the remains of the apples crushed for juice were taken to Tamworth Farm Allotment Society where one of our volunteers, JP, has an allotment. It worked so well that this year Jane and Martin, who run the Apple Press, arranged with JP to meet the allotmenteers at the end of the day. They were very happy to take the apple debris for their compost heaps.
Can you spot one of our founders, Joyce, in the photos below? We were so pleased that she returned to spend the day with us!
OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER
We will be back in touch in 2025, when we will look forward to our next year of fruit picking and our ever popular Fruit Day.
To get in touch with Abundance Wimbledon please click on the 'Get in touch with Liz' below.
Best wishes and sincere thanks from us all,
Juliet and the team at Abundance Wimbledon xx
Get in Touch with Liz
p.s. You can find all our past newsletter issues here, and if you're not already subscribed, you can subscribe here. You can also find us on social media: Instagram, X (Twitter), and Facebook.
