2025 was an absolute bumper year for fruit. Did you notice?
“This wasn’t just the case in the UK, but in other parts of Europe as well,” says Closing Loops Engagement Coordinator Nina. “My Mum’s quince tree in the southwest of Germany just wouldn’t stop giving us crates and crates full. My Mum made so much quince juice that I felt obliged to bring some home for friends in the UK in October, and I’m told it was very much enjoyed.”
At Eggcup, North Lancashire’s surplus food charity, apples and other fruit kept pouring in as well. The walk-in fridges filled up to the point where, one day in late September, Eggcup held an apple give-away where the public could just walk in and take as many apples as they could carry.
Jay, Gleaning Coordinator for the Closing Loops project at Eggcup, says:
“Last year was an especially good year for apple harvests across the country. Good weather (for apples at least, if a bit too dry for many other crops!) combined with 2024 being fairly low yield meant we saw trees across Lancashire laden with huge amounts of waste. Thanks to the effort of volunteers and staff coordinators across the district we were able to direct a lot of this bounty into our food support system of charities and community groups, both fresh and preserved. Building on skills and relationships from previous festival, we saved more fruit from going to waste than every before.”
The whole idea of inventing Share the Harvest as a festival back in 2022 was that a lot of people have more fruit on their bushes and trees than they can manage to harvest, let alone eat.
The programme for Share the Harvest has grown bigger and more varied every year. With 83 events and activities happening and 14 organisations involved, the 2025 programme ranged from harvesting, juicing and preserving to feasts, celebrations and seasonal foraging walks.
An impressive amount of 9 tonnes of apples was rescued, which is up from 2.6 tonnes in 2024. A big part of that came from gleaning activities organised by Closing Loops and is owed to the work of a group of committed gleaning volunteers. (Read on for how you can join them in 2026!)
Equally impressive was the amount of juice pressed. Most of the credit of this goes to the tireless effort of two amazing people: Moyna, who hosts juicing with Claver Hill’s community-owned apple press, and Ben, who has his own mobile press and takes it round to events.
Moyna reflects, “People love using their apples to have delicious juice rather than waste them. They were amazed at the amount of juice their apples produced once pressed. They liked drinking the juice straight from the press as it tastes so great.”
“Two women from a Lancaster allotment brought a huge amount of apples which were turned into pasteurised apple juice lasting up to two years but they used all their dozens of bottles to have an allotment party for all the allotment holders to tell them about the opportunity to have their apples turned into pasteurised juice or cider.”
But whatever this year’s harvest will be like, one thing is for sure: Share the Harvest will once more bring together local people around a love of fruit, rescuing surplus fruit and getting together to celebrate the abundance and diversity of locally produced food.
Ways to get involved in 2026
There are many ways you, your community group or your friends and neighbourhood can join in, rescue surplus fruit from going to waste and share the abundance of the harvest. A few ideas:
Join a fruit picking activity as a gleaning volunteer. Find out more about gleaning and sign up now to stay in the loop.
Even better: Organise your own glean. It’s a fun way of spending a half-day outdoors, doing something meaningful with friends or meeting new people.
Borrow useful tools and equipment, for example extendable apple pickers, step ladders and crates from Eggcup; a cooking kit for your community event from Global Link; or a bicycle trailer from LESS.
Donate your surplus. If you have excess quantities of any kind of food that is still safe to eat, you can drop it off at Eggcup year round. If you have bigger quantities, Eggcup may even be able to help you harvest and arrange a collection.
If you’re good at cooking, baking, fermenting or preserving with fruit and vegetables, why not share your skills in a workshop?
Bring your apples to get juiced, or join attend any of the other events during this year’s Share the Harvest. The programme will start to fill up around August 2026 at foodfutures.org.uk/share-the-harvest.
Do you have any other ideas for what you could contribute to Share the Harvest and do your bit to make sure the abundance of seasonal fruit doesn’t go to waste?
The Closing Loops team would love to hear from you, whether you need help developing your idea for an activity, want to let us know about a glean or other event to add to the programme or just want to say hi.
