There will be an opportunity early in the new year, for you to join with Transition Leek for an evening taking part in a World Game session. The World Game is being developed by the  International Futures Forum – IFF .The event will focus on the future for Leek, whilst thinking from a global perspective.

The background to this game is that we are living in a less certain world on many fronts. As a town, as a county and as a world, we are considering (to some extent) the potential impacts from each type of global development that we have identified so far (such as climate change) and building some contingency plans to increase the resilience of our communities (e.g. raising the height of the sea walls in coastal resorts). But where are we considering the potential risks from the convergence of multiple global events happening at roughly the same time? If we accept that we are living in an increasingly less certain world, then the occurrence in a short space of time of multiple world events is not such a far fetched scenario.

The World Game is not about competition between players, but about all the players together competing against such a world scenario to generate ideas about specific impacts on Leek and ways in which Leek could improve its resilience.----------

The smell of apples permeated the Old Coop Emporium in Leek on Sunday 25^th when local fruit lovers brought their apples to a public Apple Juicing Day organised by us. The group had arranged the event so that apples could be crushed and pressed for juice, helping to use up windfalls and surplus fruit from this year’s bumper crop.

The crushed apples were pressed in a 36 litre cross beam press and those who brought apples participated in the process through washing, chopping, crushing, pressing and bottling. There was tremendous help from the young people present, who participated in washing and transporting the apples with great enthusiasm, as well as supervising their crushing and pressing.

The juice was poured into recycled wine bottles brought by participants as well as additional ones provided by Shapla Tandoori. Most of these were then pasteurised in the group’s sterilising unit to ensure the juice would last for several months. However, reports after the event indicate that families had no difficulty drinking up the unpasteurised juice that can only be stored for a few days.

We were  delighted at the success of the day, which was the first of its kind we organised. Lots of enthusiasts turn up on the day and others who had large amounts of apples asked to use the equipment on subsequent occasions. We have had a couple of pressing sessions since and this will be an on-going process for the rest of the apple season.