Freshly pressed apple juice at the Surrey Hills Wood Fair
A glorious Grand Day Out with the family today at the Surrey Hills Wood Fair – country crafts, tree-climbing, archery, chainsaw art (yes, really) and, the highlight for us, apple pressing. My two kids spent an utterly blissful half hour or so turning a handle to grind the apples in the crusher, pounding the rough pieces into pulp with a heavy pole, then turning the handle of the press until the juice ran, rich, fragrant and cloudy, through a muslin strainer into a jug.
The cheerful team on the stall had long since sold out of the bottles they’d brought to sell. My kids helped them sterlise and wash out some old milk cartons so they could keep going.
Of course we bought a bottle. We’d have bought two or three if they’d had enough. We drank it with our roast chicken dinner tonight and it was incredible.
But here’s the thing: we’d walked past bottles of home-pressed apple juice that was probably equally delicious and barely noticed them, let alone considered buying them. The place was crowded with stalls selling great stuff. Just like the bookshops are full of great books. The product was good, but it wasn’t until we got involved in making the juice that we really cared about it.
People need a reason to buy. You might get lucky and find someone who’s actively in the market for apple juice, or the answers that your book rather than any other can offer. They will seek you out and press money into your hand. But sadly there are very, very few of them.
Most people most of the time are just wandering the stalls, and there’s plenty to distract them from whatever it is you’re offering. If you can give them a reason to care, if you can engage and involve them with the bigger story, even – if you’re REALLY good – make them feel that your success is their success, you’ve given them an experience.
And that’s what we really value.
