Volunteers wanted to press rescued Sussex fruit at Stanmer on 24 October

Brighton Permaculture Trust^1,2,3,4,5,6 needs volunteers to juice fruit at the Fruit Factory in Stanmer village on Saturday 24 October. The trust picked or collected the fruit around Brighton and Sussex, and says it would otherwise have gone to waste.

The trust’s volunteer listing shows two shifts that day, 9am to 2pm and 12pm to 5pm. The page for the 12pm shift is headed 9am to 2pm in its description, so check the time when you register.

The fruit becomes juice and cider, and some of it is sold on the day to people passing. Volunteers learn small-scale juice and cider making as they go, with Robbi Smoot and Ben Jasnocha hosting.

No experience is needed. The trust calls the sessions “fun, messy and fast paced” because the fruit has to be pressed before it spoils. It is physical work: crates weigh around 15kg, and the top of the equipment is 1.6m high. Don’t register if you are ill or have had any sickness or diarrhoea in the previous 14 days. Only register if you are sure you can come.

Bring your own food and drink. There is a cafe opposite, and tea and coffee in the Fruit Factory. Wear tough shoes and bring work gloves, plus rubber gloves if you have them, because hands get cold washing apples. Check your email the night before in case bad weather cancels the session.

The Fruit Factory began in 2014 as a straw bale building inside a disused tractor shed. It can process up to 40 tonnes of surplus fruit a year, and the trust says it makes about 10,000 litres of juice a year from rescued fruit. Sales of juice and preserves help fund its education and orchard planting.

The listing has more juicing at Stanmer on 17, 18, 25 and 31 October. Pasteurising and bottling sessions at Stanmer Park run on 12, 19 and 26 October.

If you have apples of your own, the trust’s juicing service at the Fruit Factory will press them. Raw juice costs £2.50 per one-litre plastic bottle and pasteurised juice £3.50 per 750ml glass bottle. Windfalls can only be pressed for cider. The trust will also weigh your fruit and give you bottled juice in exchange. You can find it at the Fruit Factory every Saturday and Sunday.