AS the saying goes: “One person’s rubbish can be someone else’s treasure”. For a Kirkbymoorside project, unwanted fruit scattered around your garden is recycled into a homemade, pristine product.

The Kirkbymoorside Fruit Project, founded in 2012 by Chris and John Simmonds, has grown into a voluntary group which uses locally-sourced, surplus fruit to create apple cider, cordials and juices.

The aims? To generate funds for local community groups, create a living record to celebrate the fruit production heritage of Kirkbymoorside and - above all - prevent wastage.

Chris said: “Britain faces a year on year rise in the cost of anything disposed of to landfill, so reducing the amount of rubbish you dispose can save money in the long term and recycle perfectly useful fruit from your trees. I believe marketing ruins what we see every single day, which are perfectly ripe apple trees which can produce 150 kilos a year – imagine how much juice or cider we could make.”

The Kirkbymoorside Fruit Project offers a juicing service where anyone within a seven-mile radius can deliver their unwanted fruit and return to a scrumptious product bottled, pasteurised and ready to go.

Chris said: “The varied activities within the project offer our volunteers a chance to concentrate their efforts on tasks or activities that they are particularly drawn to.

“Some enjoy the outside and contribute to harvesting and propagating new fruit trees; some prefer the kitchen and prepare, and bottle, the preserves, some like the hectic juicing times, some enjoy the creative creation of the gift boxes or the quiet and sociable times of labelling.”

Welcoming more than 22 volunteers this year, the project has completed their seventh season with a sea of labelled bottles and gift baskets ready for sale at the Kirkbymoorside Christmas Market on Saturday, November 30.

The stall will feature homemade mulled cider, spiced apple by the glass and an exclusive range of gift boxes for the festive season.

For more information about the project, visit kirkbyfruitproject.wordpress.com