Always a popular community event, the fourth Fairfield Apple Day on Saturday 29 September was bigger and better than ever before. This year’s event included a hugely popular animal enclosure and quad bike from Lower Wilbury Farm as well as their usual stall selling fresh meats and other produce.

There was also a performance from the Stotfold Twirlers, who hold classes in Fairfield Community Hall, and a selection of popular food stalls, including a choice of pulled pork or beef brisket from Fairfield’s very own Cardona & Son, plus Apple Day stalwarts La Crêpe Franglaise and Gunns Bakery with their traditional Bedfordshire clanger and other treats.

Children were very well catered for, with colouring sheets, a popular face painter, two bouncy castles and apple bobbing all among the other activites on offer.

Apple pressing was, of course, the main attraction, with Friends of the Fairfield Orchards and other volunteers signing up beforehand to chop and process apples, and children joining in to help work the presses on the day. It was a slick operation with some experienced hands on board, and the apples produced from the two picking days had all been pressed by 3pm. Juice was handed out to children for drinking now as well as stored for the year’s cider making. There was of course also cider on offer, both from Fairfield’s 2017 brew and from CAMRA, who brought a selection to taste.