FAO: Rod Calder-Potts,
Of course they do. 🙄
That's a pretty uninformed shot-in-the-dark comment there, TBH...?
For your "information" we have supported local orchardists & growers for decades - if we didn't buy the apples from them they would be dumped or virtually given away for animal feed (surprisingly to farmers...).
We pay £150 / tonne for hand picked - but *surplus* dessert & culinary apples, & pears.
Why do we pay so much? Because the fruit is top-notch & it helps these growers & farmers survive.
And after we've pressed the fruit, we give away for *free* the spent pomace to our local farmers as animal feed (after registering with the council as a producer of waste of course...).
I don't even charge for loading up my trailer to transport this "waste" & deliver it.
Just remember that the folk we are talking about here are folk with 2 or 3 trees in their back garden.
This particular example is from a very small village school with a few mixed apple & a couple of pear trees on their grounds.
Even when folk are "offering apples for free" we - like everyone else I know in similar situations - will offer some cash or more usually, a trade of a few bottles of cider.