Farmborough’s Big Family Apple Day, held on Saturday, 30th September at the Rec, was a great success and raised over £300 in support of the Farmborough Community Shop.

Families came throughout the afternoon armed with trugs, buckets, and crates of different varieties of apples and pears. The juicing process mesmerised children and adults alike, and everyone got involved in the process; from throwing the apples into the fruit mincer, to watching the apple presses squeeze the pulp to make the delicious juice.

No two juices looked or tasted the same, but whether they were sweet or crisp, all agreed that the juice was extremely refreshing and it was satisfying to know that it had all come from local, homegrown fruit.

There were also family games to play and tasty bacon sandwiches from local butchers, Tunley Farm, along with fresh pressed apple juice, and a cider and spirits from the Tiny Welly Boot Vineyard.

Since 2012, a small but growing group of volunteers have been working tirelessly to bring a shop back to Farmborough following the closure of the previous ‘Farmborough Stores’, which was sold off, along with the local bakery and adjacent businesses to make way for housing.

An agreement and lease with both the Farmborough Parish Council and the Farmborough Memorial Hall Committee to erect a purpose-built Community Shop on a strip of land behind the village hall is in place, and a full planning application for the shop was granted earlier this year.

To date, local fundraising has raised around £40,000 towards the community-funding target of £50,000, which has come from events, generous donations and membership through the purchase of shares. Such financial support from the community, together with a grant from the LEADER programme which has awarded over £83,000 to the project, will make up the total funding needed to build the shop.

Groundworks are due to begin mid to late October, with the shop (portacabin) delivery and final works beginning January 2018, and the shop due to open in spring 2018, staffed by a paid full-time manager and volunteers from the community.

The shop is intended to provide both regular every day staples, alongside locally sourced produce, as well as provide a village hub with a seated area for people to meet daily over a cup of tea/coffee and cake.

For more information, call: 01761 470 690 or email: [email protected]