Grosvenor, located in Belgrave, Chester will once again be helping to grow communities by joining forces with Eaton Estate and surrounding villages to celebrate the British apple.

Celebrating its 21st birthday, the national Apple Days initiative has struck a chord with Grosvenor over the past few years with 2009 seeing an Apple Weekend event at the garden centre which encompassed villagers and schools from Aldford, Eccleston and Saighton all taking part in a great Apple Weekend celebration.

Villagers and customers will be asked to bring along their apples which will be turned into bottles of juice for the villages to sell at fetes and other village events to raise funds for the community.  Last year the villages invested the funds into an apple press, a new sound system for the village church and improving a community play area.

Working within the community is always at the forefront of the garden centre’s focus with many events taking place throughout each year and the Apple Weekend will once again develop Grosvenor’s strong links with the community at a time when the home-grown British apple is falling from our trees. 

“The British apple has a great following in Chester and the local area with apple trees the most popular fruit trees in our gardens.  Such a versatile and nutritious fruit deserves to be highlighted at this time of year when we are all wondering which new recipes we can try with our bumper crop of home-grown apples,” said Iain Wylie, managing director.

There are thought to be more than 7,000 varieties of apple grown worldwide with around 3,000 grown here.  It is no wonder then that many people are not sure of which types of apple are growing in their gardens.  At Grosvenor’s Apple Weekend on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th October, visitors will be able to bring along their apples for Les Armstrong, Head Gardener at Eaton Estate to identify; he’ll also be happy to answer any horticultural questions.  There will also be hands-on activities, with a real apple press in action and customers can taste the juice - hot off the press! With live cooking demonstrations, competitions, children’s nature activities, storytellers with traditional tales, music, food tasting and much more besides!

“Our Apple Weekend has grown over the last two years and this year’s event held once again in conjunction with Eaton Estate and local villages and schools promises to be even bigger and better – a true culmination of our work within the neighbourhood over the past 12 months,” Iain concluded.