SUFFOLK celebrated one of the nation’s favourite foods with a day of fruity activities.

To mark National Apple Day and draw attention to the tasty lesser-known varieties of the fruit, Sophie Wheldon organised a day of events at her 70-acre orchard at Newton Leys near Sudbury.

Meanwhile, Foxburrow Farm, near Woodbridge, hosted apple tastings and juicings, trails in the orchard, apple games and apple crafts.

In Ipswich, Holywells Park welcomed visitors for similar fun, combining games with education and knowledge on the subject.

Apple Day was started in 1990 by the charity Common Ground to draw attention to the number of orchards lost over the years, and it has been celebrated annually since then.

On Saturday, visitors to Wheldon’s orchard tried their hand at a range of apple-related challenges, and sampled products made from 20 different varieties of the fruit.

They tried juice fresh from the apple press alongside cakes and puddings made with apples. Competitions included apple bobbing, cutting the longest continuous piece of peel, creating “apple monsters” and identifying different varieties of apple in a blind taste test.

Sophie said: “We have just finished our harvest so this event has given us a chance to show our apples off and give people a chance to try something a bit different.”