Apples & Borscht | Яблука та борщt

Rural Media’s exciting new Herefordshire-wide food and video project Apples & Borscht / Yabluka ta Borshch (Яблука та борщt) showcases and celebrates the shared lives of Ukrainians living in the UK and the Herefordians welcoming them into their homes.

Creating hope from tragedy, these communities are sharing traditions and customs that show how two cultures can unite and thrive together. Key to this new unity is food, the heart and soul of daily life, and Apples & Borscht will host a series of events around the county for people, local and Ukrainian, to come together and share recipes, rituals and customs that use food as a reason to gather people together.

Cooking, eating and celebrating will be filmed, photographed and captured for a new website that will bring all the inspiring cultural sharing together online so everyone can learn about food and traditions from the Ukraine and Herefordshire and how the two are combining to make new traditions of their own as they forge new lives here.

“After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, millions of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes, seeking safety across the world.

Most of them are women, children, and elderly people who left everything behind to save their lives and protect their loved ones.

The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to open its doors to Ukrainian refugees, providing shelter and support. Herefordshire played a special role in this effort — a place where communities came together to welcome Ukrainian families, helping them adapt and find housing, jobs, and education for their children.

The solidarity and compassion shown by residents became a powerful example of how empathy and mutual support can change lives.”

— Alla Savchenko, Project Leader

Alla Savchenko, our project leader was recently interviewed on Ukrainian national TV about the Apples & Borscht project and how important it has been in pulling the Ukrainian and British communities together Herefordshire.

Feedback we’ve had so far

Incredibly humbled and emotional after attending this event. It did so much to give hope, share cultures and promote community, culture, cooperation. Congratulations to Alla, Rural Media and all contributors. It was amazing!

Will Lindesay, HVOSS
That was amazing- thank you for the taste of home

Ukrainian event participant
Apples & Borscht is more than a show of integration, it highlighted that the British and Ukrainian communities are bonding together and that we are being enriched by this. It also demonstrated how important the network is as so many of the other agencies were involved in so many ways - big and small. It was a night that will always stay with me.

English event participant
Fantastic as always. Wonderful people, feel good atmosphere, well organised, lots of work clearly went in and it showed. Amazing. It was an honour to be part of this event.

English event participant
My son was happy. Thank you for the joy 🤗

Ukrainian event participant
We traveled from Bromyard for this event & it was well worth our time & effort. We were very interested in learning more about Ukrainian culture.

English event participant
This was an inspirational and informative evening presented with such joy and warmth; I was so impressed. What a wonderful gift to bring a community together in such a vibrantly positive way. I will be buying everyone the book! There is so much struggle in the world, and this was and is the perfect antidote. An exceptional evening: well organised, professionally presented, inclusive and engaging.

English event participant
Thank you for an unparalleled event and a pleasant evening. Extremely tasty and informative!

Ukrainian event participant
I liked everything so much 🤗. I'm telling everyone how great it was. Thank you for such a wonderful event

Ukrainian event participant
It was a beautiful day. I felt moved by the stories and the lovely people that I met. I learned so much and tasted amazing food. It couldn’t have been better. Thank you so much

English event participant

Take a look at what we’ve been up to…

The Beefy Boys

Here’s us with Murf and Dmitriy from The Beefy Boys creating the ‘Ukrainian Boy’. For the full recipe, visit our Recipes Page

William Jackson

William Jackson, has been raising funds and transporting donations and goods to Ukraine. He talks to us in Hereford.

Varenyky Ledbury Event

Ukrainian & Herefordian friends gather in Ledbury to learn how to make Varenyky together, then taste and enjoy their efforts!

Caroline Handley Interview

Ledbury resident Caroline Handley shares her thoughts on the importance of food to bring communities and cultures together.

Tom Oliver’s Cider Tour

Tom took us on a wonderful tour of his orchards, where we saw an array of apple and pear trees, then off to his farm. We then watched the careful process of washing, sorting, mashing and pressing the fruit to get the precious juice to make cider and perry.

MP Ellie Chowns joined us to discuss the Apples & Borscht project and why its so important.

Ellie Chowns

Easter Bread Event

Ukrainian & Herefordian friends gather together to celebrate Easter, bake Easter bread and share each other’s Easter customs and traditions.

Borscht In the Garden

Friends from the Ukraine and from Hereford gathered in Tarrington to make red borscht on an open fire, then we enjoyed the borscht with a wide selection of fresh Ukrainian breads, fish and other delicacies.

Beefy Boys Event

The new Ukrainian burger was enjoyed by a host of young people from Herefordshire & Ukraine, who were invited to watch their burgers be cooked, hear more about traditional Ukrainian cooking and enjoy each other’s company.