Orchards as well as pressing and bottling workshops are an excellent educational material.
From garden fork to fork!
With 2.5 hectares of apple trees and peer trees (of which 0.7 hectare is dedicated to organic production), the arboriculture sector allows students to be confronted to the whole production. They discover the whole sector, including bottling, crop and transformation.
Students preparing a diploma of technological baccalaureate, NVQ, professional baccalaureate, HND or trainees are all discovering how to manage an orchard to get fruits of high quality.
Then, according to the different diplomas, the transformation of apple juice or cider will lead to different teaching methods dealing with fermentation, pasteurization, traceability as well as hygiene and work conditions.
The apple juice which is created (combined with other varieties such as peer, strawberry, melon or beetroots) is then used by the Institut de Genech for internal consumption but also put in sale in the producers’ shop. The apple juice workshop is opened to anyone who would have apple to be transformed.
Some figures:
- 5 hectares of apple trees and peer trees
- 7 hectare for organic production
- 100 tons of apples and peers picked up each year
- 15 tons coming from the organic orchard
- 150,000 liters of apple juice per year
