Wild Apples collected locally by cargo bike

 Our community loves apples, we are inclusive, so that means all sorts  

The apple and foraging active travel outing for wildlings

FEL has generously provided our active travel team with a cargo bike once again,

this time to assist in our pre-Apple Day apple collection efforts. Since

this lease is longer than the one we had for Monty's big day out,

there's potential for planning other local cycling adventures focused on wild harvests if anyone is interested.

We think it would be fun to bike around the Upper and Lower Braes communities to not only gather apples

but also look for other items our community might know about.

For example, Kenny and Claire have already collected some sweet chestnuts.

Any help with collecting apples or other food harvesting ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 We have only taken the cargo bike out once to gather apples. It was a quick but bountiful visit to three local trees, allowing us to fill three baskets. The team has learned where there is an abundance of apples that need to be harvested. All three trees we visited still have plenty of apples left, and we are aware of even more laden trees in the area. However, we collected more than enough for the day and haven't had the time to press on with another juice-making event. It would be a shame to let the remaining apples go to waste.

All year at the hub during school breaks and long summer nights,local kids have been cycling around the large car park, making small obstacles for jumps.

They don’t usually come inside the hub. There were only a handful of kids at our Polmont Bike Festival,

one of our first events, so no one really knew what we were doing then—not even us!

Although there are many children's groups that focus on activities like dance and karate,

it seems that most of the kids attending these groups come from further away in the district,

rather than our immediate neighbourhood.

However, these young cycling enthusiasts definitely come from the nearby houses,

and we know some of their parents.

One of our volunteers went out to chat about our compost project to a new volunteer

and spotted the kids on their bikes, our volunteer shouted over to them, "Do you want some apple juice?"

A bairn shouted back How much is it? When he replied that it was free and they could have as much as they wanted

, they all jumped off their bikes, ran inside, and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying apple juice,

joining in joyously making their own, eating sandwiches, and drawing pictures of what they would like to see.

Happen with our grounds, ultimately it will be them in our shoes in time,

by the time they take over it will be transformed dramatically 

The attitude between the volunteers and the atmosphere around the hub has changed dramatically

with these local kids. The other day, while we were tidying up outside the playgroup area,

the kids waved and smiled at us, and of course, we waved back. The neighbourhood is coming together,

all thanks to the power of free apple juice!