Abundance Wimbledon Newsletter
September 13, 2021
Welcome to Abundance Wimbledon - 13 September 2021 Newsletter
We are on the countdown to Fruit Day this Saturday! Read below for all the details - it promises to be our best Fruit Day yet as the fruit has ripened just in time! Our wonderful volunteers will have a big week this week with lots to do before the main event.
This fortnight we have a call out for bottles for our apple juice (or you can BYO to the stall), our cake, bake and pie makers will be busy in the kitchens making all their goodies and with our last committee meeting before the event on this Tuesday there will be many last minute details to attend to. Bryony is coordinator this year and has a big job so would welcome extra hands.
With such a small, dedicated team organising our activities this year, if we don't get to respond or to your pick, please forgive us and think of us again next year. As with all volunteer groups we do our best to answer every email and message but we do sometimes miss some. We sincerely thank you for considering us. It has been a big year - slow to start but the next week will be huge!
Please read on for more of our latest news:
- Fruit Day is this Saturday!
- Do you have any spare 500ml and 750ml bottles we can recycle?
- Alternatively, you can BYO bottle - clean and glass please - 500ml or 750ml only
- The Plant stall is looking for donations
- Twin apples = Lots of Apple Juice
- Calling all local cake, bake and pie makers - We Need You
- Pop in to the Children's Activities Stall
- The Honey stall is back again this year
- Jams, Chutneys, Jellies and Cordials are ready to go
- Thanks to all our donors - we couldn't do this without you
- Donors can drop off apples on Fruit Day
- The pickers have had a very busy fortnight
- Local charities have received more than 220kgs of fruit this season
- Are you free to volunteer on Fruit Day Saturday?
- Don't forget to grab your own Abundance Wimbledon Tote - just £2
- Sue's Fresh Ginger and Apple Cake
- Our next newsletter
Fruit Day is this Saturday!
Abundance Wimbledon, 11th Annual Fruit Day
SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER, 2021
11.00am - 2.30pm
St Mark's Church Hall & Grounds
St Mark's Pl, Wimbledon, London SW19 7ND
This year featuring:
- Opening by Merton Mayor Cr Michael Brunt
- Home made Jams, Chutneys, Cordials and Butters stall
- Home made Bakes and Cakes stall
- Freshly Squeezed Apple Juice (have a go at the manual press!)
- Local Honey stall by Alison and David (Cash only) Martin Way Allotments and Tooting Honey
- Plant stall
- Coffee Van
- Children's activities (free)
- About Abundance Wimbledon
- Merton Friends of the Earth
- Sustainable Merton
- Merton U3A
- Performances by Songs on Wheels
- Performances by Ukulele Orchestra
Don't forget to pick up your Abundance Wimbledon Cotton Tote bag for just £2.00!
Do you have any spare 500ml and 750ml bottles we can recycle?
Our fresh apple juice is one of our most popular stalls and this year, to cater to demand, we need as many clean 500ml and 750ml screw top bottles as we can! We are keen to continue our passion for recycling so any donated bottles will be most welcome. If you have any spare, please email Juliet at abundancewimbledon@gmail.com and she will let you know where to drop them off!
Alternatively, you can BYO bottle - clean and glass please - 500ml or 750ml only
For the first time this year, we will be accepting your own bottles for refilling. This is all part of our efforts to ensure we recycle and reuse as much as possible, so feel free to BYO glass bottle (either 500ml or 750ml) and have it filled with our freshly squeezed apple juice.
Prices for the apple juice are:
- 500ml: £1.50
- 750ml: £2.50
The Plant stall is looking for donations
We received our first donation of plants for the plant stall! Thanks to Sue (who kindly also allowed our volunteers on site for picking her apples) who has seeded these cardoons for us. Cardoons are a thistle-like plant, generally grown in the Mediterranean and taste like a mild globe artichoke. The stalks are the eating part (not the blossoms) and it is best to blanch them in water - which brings out their delicate flavour!
Thanks Sue for the donation! If you have plants to donate, please drop them off to St Mark's Church (SW19 7ND either between 7-8pm this Friday (17 Sep) or from 10.00am on Saturday (Fruit Day) - same location.
Twin apples = Lots of Apple Juice
On the pick in Sue's garden Byrony noticed these twin apples. Not a usual sight but they certainly didn't go to waste! These apples will be used either for our cake and bake stall, donated to a local charity or be juiced on Fruit Day. Nothing goes to waste here.
Calling all local cake, bake and pie makers - We Need You
Each year, the cake, bake and pie stall is one of the first to sell out - the home made goodies are such a hit and this year we have Sue on board making some yummy vegan options as well (am sure they will go very fast). We do have a team of bakers, led by Rosie, but are keen to involve as many local community members in our efforts on our cake, bake and pie stall. If you have any spare time this week to pick up some apples or fruit from our picks and then make some delicious fruit based cakes, bakes and pies, we would be most grateful! There are a couple of ways to be part of this.
- Bring along your goodies to St Mark's Church on Friday between 7-8pm or after 10am on Saturday (Fruit Day) where they will be gratefully received; or
- Email Juliet at abundancewimbledon@gmail.com and she will put you in touch with a local coordinator who can supply you with some fruit and then per 1. above, get your goodies to us ready for Fruit Day.
Pop in to the Children's Activities Stall
Karoline is our erstwhile Children's Activities stall organiser and this year is no different.
There will be a free activities for the children to enjoy and separately some items available for purchase (cash only).
So pop in and say hi to Karoline and her team on Saturday - and make sure your children have enough time to enjoy the activities on offer.
The Honey stall is back again this year
Alison (Martin Way Allotments) and David (Tooting Honey) are back at Fruit Day again this year selling their incredibly popular local honey. The bees have been hard at work this year (as have Alison and David!) and their honey is jarred up and ready to go. There is normally a selection of candles and other beeswax related produce so make sure you pop in and say hi and pick up your own portion of local honey and products. Please note that it will be cash only at the honey stall, and there are a range of prices for different size jars:
- 454 gr (one pound weight) jar: £10.00
- 12 oz jar: £7.50
- 8 oz jar: £5.00
Jams, Chutneys, Jellies and Cordials are ready to go
Sue and her amazing team of jam, jelly, chutney and cordial makers have been working overtime in their kitchens in the last few weeks as the fruit has slowly ripened and been picked. The donations have been great and with the success of her 2 masterclasses this year, Sue has invited new members into the fold and who are all part of the home cooks group making sure that nothing is wasted! There will be a plethora of yummy delights to choose from and of course, home made always tastes better!
- Standard jars jam, jelly and chutney £2.50
- 500cl bottles cordial £2.50
- There is a £1.50 mixed section for small items and a £3.50 section for large items
Thanks to all our donors - we couldn't do this without you
Our fruit donors continue to be a great source of our fruit and we would not have gathered nearly as much without all their support. In the last fortnight we have enjoyed fruit from Ron, June, Keith, Paro, Sarah, Iain, Zoe, Amee, Mandy, Nicola, Carmel, Pippa, Derek, Emma, Carol, Jo, Leila, Ian, Ray, Carolyn, Sue, Alice, Joan and Jen. These names include some new donors - who are always welcome and thanks for contacting us this year. Sincere thanks to all our donors for their kindness.
We have also been out picking fruit from local street trees including from Merton Park Tramlink and Haines Walk We are always on the look out for other community locations so please let us know if you see trees with an abundance of fruit which you think will be available for our pickers.
Donors can drop off apples on Fruit Day
If our pickers are unable to get to your garden this week, and you have an abundance of apples ready picked, we would still love them! They will be perfect for our fresh apple juice stall - be they cookers, eaters or juicers. There is no need to contact us - just drop them in from 10am to St Mark's Church and Gardens (entry via Compton Road), SW19 7ND. We will happily accept them and juice them for all.
The pickers have had a very busy fortnight
The pickers have been out in force over the last fortnight picking more than 500kgs of fruit. This is a champion effort and sincere thanks goes to the picking team which include: Liz, Adam, June, Ron, Keith, Gilli, Brian, Juliet, Karoline, Paro (and her 2 daughters), Kate, Cherry, Mary-Jane, Sarah, Bryony, Joan, Lucy and Mandy.
We also had a number of people who picked their own fruit and dropped it off to Juliet. Sincere thanks to those people too!
Local charities have received more than 220kgs of fruit this season
An important part of what we do at Abundance Wimbledon is to donate good fruit to local charities. This fortnight another 90kgs have been distributed (mainly apples and pears), bringing our season total to more than 220kgs. Charity recipients this season have included:
- Wimbledon Guild
- Sunshine Recovery Cafe
- St Teresa's Care Home
- YMCA
- Regenerate Rise
- Wimbledon Foodbank
- Homeless Project, Mitcham
- Faith in Action
- Age UK Lunch Club
- Lee House
- Poplar Primary School
- Sustainable Merton
- FISH
Are you free to volunteer on Fruit Day Saturday?
We are looking for:
- Stall volunteers
- Set up volunteers
- Pack up volunteers
- Cake makers
- Plants for our plant stall
Don't forget to grab your own Abundance Wimbledon Tote - just £2
This year we have designed and organised our own Abundance Wimbledon tote bag. Purchased through a local UK company, we are delighted with the quality and hope that you will like them too! They can be picked up from the cashiers (as you pay for all your goodies) and are a great way to not only support our Abundance Wimbledon work, but to have as a keepsake and a useful bag for all your shopping. We would love to see as many of these as we can out in the community - not only because they are useful, but because they look great and promote our work!
Sue's Fresh Ginger and Apple Cake
This squidgy, spicy cake improves with keeping. Eat it for tea, or warm with cream or ice cream for pudding.
Serves 8
Ingredients
4oz/110g butter
8oz/225g dark-brown sugar
2 eggs
1oz/30g grated fresh ginger
8oz/225g self-raising flour
10oz/280g peeled, cored and diced cooking apple (prepared weight)
For the topping:
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp Demerara sugar
Method
- Heat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3.
- Cream the butter and dark-brown sugar and mix in the beaten eggs little by little, followed by the ginger.
- Sift over the flour, fold together, then mix in the apple.
- Pour into a greased 20cm/8in cake tin and bake for about an hour, until risen and browned.
- Mix the honey and Demerara sugar, warm and spread over the cake while still warm.
Our next newsletter
Just one final newsletter this season - with our post Fruit Day wrap up and a summary of our 2021 season.
Feel free to send any news and photos to our editor - Sally at sjohanns@bigpond.net.au.
** To get in touch about any of the above information, please just reply to this email **
Best wishes and sincere thanks from us all
Juliet and the team at Abundance Wimbledon