A NEW Manx company brought a brand new idea to the Island in August - making cider and apple juice from "orphaned" apples from the back garden.
The Apple Orphanage Co Ltd issued an appeal to anyone on the Isle of Man with apples - even if it's only one tree - to get in touch so that they could transform their apples into delicious apple juice and cider.
They gave apple donors bottles of juice based on the weight of apples supplied. The basic calculation is that every 3kgs of apples provides one bottle of juice in return.
Will Faulds and Charlotte Traynor started making their own apple juice and cider some time ago as a solution to utilising the otherwise wasted apples from their relatively small orchard at Lynague on the Peel to Kirk Michael coast road.
This soon grew as friends and family started to donate more unused fruit.
The pair started to look for a plausible way to go commercial; however, it was obvious that their own orchard was nowhere near big enough to go into the commercial market and, still driven by the initial concept to make use of an abundant, untapped Manx resource, they decided upon the Co-operative Harvest scheme.
The result was the creation of the Apple Orphanage Co Ltd - inviting the public to supply their own "orphaned" apples and partake in the Co-operative Harvest; sharing apple juice with those who helped make it.
As they researched the Island's apple resources a number of really interesting statistics were uncovered - the first being that the Isle of Man is home to at least 200 different varieties of apples, two of which were cultivated on the Island.
One, the Andrew Johnson, is a cooker but makes an excellent dessert apple if picked late, and is named after a previous Manx head forester.
The other, more well known and recognised by the National Fruit Collection, is a dessert apple called the ‘Manx Codlin', raised by Mr Kewley at Ballanard in the 1800s.
Both varieties are fairly widespread in the Island, though not easy to obtain.
Apple Orphanage hopes to take cuttings and graft their own to ensure the continued survival of these truly Manx varieties.
They also found that some people have really large apple orchards - with as many as 100 trees - which is something Will Faulds did not expect.
"It has been an eye-opener," he said, "and we still don't feel that we're anywhere near finding all the orchards in the Isle of Man.
"We're sure there will be some more big surprises around the corner."
But the apples don't have to be special to be made into delicious apple juice or cider.
"There are around 7,000 known varieties in the world, but it doesn't matter which variety - they all help to balance the flavour of apple juice and cider with their unique characteristics, even crab apples!" said Charlotte.
Will added: "Apples are a wonderful untapped natural resource and we thought it was worth investing in the equipment to make good use of perfectly good apples which would otherwise go to waste; it's fantastic to offer people a way to process their fruit which is usually beyond their means."
There are one or two simple rules - the Apple Orphanage Co Ltd doesn't want apples with rot, dirt or broken skin and they'd like to have each tree's fruit kept separate - even if you're not sure what variety it is.
Otherwise, it's very simple - collect the apples, take them to the Apple Orphanage Co Ltd and you get bottles of apple juice in return, free of charge.
And they are also revealed they are making their own delicious sparkling 3.5 per cent "Elderflower Keshal" (you're not allowed to call it "champagne") and soon a nettle beer, again from under-used Manx, home-grown, natural ingredients - with more ideas in the pipeline. Products can be ordered online.
