Many may have heard of the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but it seems a single apple tree brings a whole community together. As the nights grow longer and the leaves on the trees begin to change their colours and fall, many will see that autumn is setting in. In Leeds, one of our services created such an autumnal atmosphere and brought it into the community after their large apple tree finally bore ripe fruit for them to feast on and share with their neighbours and with others in ubu.
As more and more apples started to sprout and fall to the ground the people we serve decided there was too much and they would like to share their harvest. So, they invited all the services in Leeds to come and pick their own apples, hold an apple tasting competition for the best apple based recipe.
The sun stayed out all day whilst old and new friends picked apples then in the evening after a great apple-based bake off the competition and the feasting began.
The warm evening was filled with lots of eating, laughing and community spirit. The apple crumbles and pies were phenomenal, everyone was full but that didn’t stop them eating more.
The competition was fierce but the rewards were plentiful and shared by all. “We ate so much apple pie and crumble, but there were still so many apples left so we told everyone to take some home to use for more baking, or to freeze and make apple sauce with for Christmas. Our winners of the bake off were so happy but everyone was. It was nice that we could all come together and share the fruit our tree produced.”
Everyone should feel included and part of the community and Leeds lived up to this when they invited people to share in their harvest this year. This led to such wonderful activities that many were able to be involved in. This harvest that was shared by all of the Leeds service ensured that everyone was happy and filled with the homely taste of food and community.
