Juicy weekends planned in Dunshaughlin!

Dunshaughlin Tidy Towns is organising its third Dunshaughlin Community Harvest as part of the annual Dunshaughlin Harvest Festival programme this year with a series of three events spread over two weeks at the end of September. The Community Harvest will bring together local makers and producers to share their local knowledge with those interested in learning more about the valuable harvest on their doorsteps. 

Community Harvest coordinator, Fiona McAuley, has seen a year on year growth in interest and expects next month’s event will be no different.

“With the climate emergency being on everyone’s minds, it’s unsurprising more families are seeking out local food and producers in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint,” she said. “Last year, Community Harvest volunteers collected a tonne and a half of apples locally which were pressed and bottled and prevented from going to waste.” The Community Harvest initiative began in 2016 with the support of the Dunshaughlin Harvest Festival which saw the acquisition of an apple shredder used to pulp the apples to make juice.
 
This year, the first leg of the series takes place in St Patrick's Hall, Dunshaughlin on Saturday 21st September from 2pm – 6pm and will feature talks by award winning cider maker, Mark Jenkinson from the Cider Mill in Slane on cidermaking and a local beekeeper who will provide an introduction into the fascinating art of beekeeping. There will be an opportunity to taste local jams, cider and honey at this event.

The second event is Harvesting Le Chéile which will take place on Sunday 22ndSeptember from 12pm – 4pm at various points around Dunshaughlin village. The team will meet at the Dunshaughlin Courthouse on Main Street and all are welcome to join in the harvesting fun. This will be a unique opportunity to harvest and make use of apples which would otherwise go to waste. Local gardens and orchards have been offered to the community to take for free for juicing while any excess apples will be donated to Falling Fruit, an organisation that collects abundant produce and redistributes to charities. To round off the Community Harvest series, a dedicated juice stall will return to the Dunshaughlin Harvest Festival on 28th and 29th September where festival-goers are welcome to taste freshly pressed local apple juice.

Community Harvest volunteers harvesting apples from a local orchard.
 

Committee members of the Dunshaughlin Tidy Towns group attended a Climate Change and Biodiversity Conference at Dalgan Park in May this year and have been inspired to “go back to nature” to nurture biodiversity and to raise further awareness. Dunshaughlin Tidy Towns group Chairperson Luke Colleran believes,  “We can and should make a greater effort locally in finding ways to reduce the impact on emissions. The Dunshaughlin Community Harvest is one such way the Dunshaughlin Tidy Towns seeks to reconnect the local community with our shared environment in the village.” The group is very proud of its other biodiversity initiatives including the planting of wild flowers and focusing on selecting pollinator friendly plants to encourage bees and butterflies to thrive.

Those interested in getting involved with the Dunshaughlin Community Harvest can contact Fiona at fi.mc.auley@gmail.com or 086 233 5826. Keep abreast with Dunshaughlin Tidy Towns activities and projects on Facebookwww.facebook.com/dunshtidytowns or email dunshaughlintidytowns@gmail.com