Hard Graft

A busy week ahead in readiness for our first sales of the season. The Vilberie and other late pressings of cider need racking off, which will be a full day's work in the ciderhouse. Barreling and boxing up of the Blakeney Red Perry should be less time-consuming, and will also give us the opportunity for more extensive 'sampling', if you know what I mean!

The delightful mild weather today has coincided nicely with this year's grafting efforts. The rootstock arrived last week c/o Mel Wilson, one of the folk behind the Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project, and a keen orchardist and hobby cidermaker herself.

I've grafted nine different Gloucestershire cider varieties onto ten 'half-standard' rootstock, the varieties are listed below. Last year we had beginners luck with our grafting with almost all taking successfully. I'm not expecting a similar result this time, which may be just as well as I'm none too sure where they're all going to go if we have 100% success!

Dymock Red - Very old cider apple which originates from the village of Dymock in the Forest of Dean. Very highly regarded for cider, with juice of sufficient quality and balance to make a good single variety cider.

Foxwhelp - Very attractive apple, yellow striped with crimson. Foxwhelp is a classic Three Counties bittersharp cider apple. Can be very sharp, and usually forms part of a blend. Foxwhelp cider has a distinctive aroma, and only a small quantity is needed in a blend to impart it's unique and highly desirable qualities.

Hagloe Crab - A real rarity this one. Hagloe Crab is a very old vintage quality cider apple, the cider from which was considered to be so good that it could be '...exchanged barrel for barrel for spiritous liquor'. Whether the current examples of this fruit are sufficiently virus-free to live up to this reputation remains to be seen, but I'm really pleased to have this one.

Hens' Turds - Great name, though probably not for a single variety cider! This cider apple is classed as 'Critically Rare' on the Gloucestershire Orchard Group website.

Old Tankard - Sharp Glocs cider apple.

Pedington Brandy - Lovely name. Sweet or bittersweet cider apple.

Port Wine Kernel - Otherwise known as Port Wine Pippin. Sweet cider apple.

Shepperdine Silt - Bittersharp cider apple, similar, though regarded in Glocs as superior, to Kingston Black.

Wick White Styre - Vale of Berkley sharp cider apple.

Marcus & Andy Got Wood (If You Want It)

It's not too late to take advantage of the free wood on offer at this years National Apple Scion Wood Exchange. We went today, and can heartily recommend what's on offer. Midshires Orchard Group founders, and all-round top men, Marcus Roberts and Andy Howard were on hand to offer sound advice, grafting wood from some rare and unusual apple varieties, plus their well-honed grafting skills for those that wanted to take home a new apple tree.

We went on the vague off-chance there might be some interesting cider apple scions available, and came home with over a dozen Gloucestershire cider varieties, including some real rarities. I was happy enough to get some Foxwhelp, a wonderful aromatic addition to any cider blend, but was particularly pleased to be offered a twig of Hagloe Crab, a variety only recently re-discovered, and with a reputation for making excellent cider. Of course, every orchard should have a Hens Turd, whether you make cider or not, so I'm pleased to say we can now add this unusually named variety to our own orchard stock.

These events are often very social occasions, and I was happy to make the acquaintance of Dennis Bancroft, a hobby cidermaker from near Rugby, who I've previously only known through the excellent Cider Workshop discussion forum. It's always nice to put a face to a name. It was also nice to see on display some of the 80-odd late storing apples which Marcus and Andy had acquired this season.

I must also give mention to the terrific George at Tiffield, a welcome refreshment break on the long journey home. A great village local, and highly recommended.

Winter Pruning

It's oh-so-quiet in the ciderhouse. Fermentation seems to have all-but finished, and I'll need to think about racking off the rest of the ciders in a week or two. Meanwhile, I've used the welcome break to Winter Prune the cider apple trees.

Those Tremlett's Bitter trees which escaped Rosy Apple Aphid damage have put on a lot of, mostly upright, growth. The leaders in particular have rocketed skywards, and the main job here is to tip back this new growth by around half, remove the 2nd and 3rd buds down from the tip, and hope this will encourage a few more lateral branches to break further down the stem. The distorted growth on the tree which was attacked by aphid has been removed completely. Even if these stunted and twisted shoots recover and put on good growth this year, there will always be a weak point near the trunk which could snap in years to come. I'm also concerned that the Aphids could have introduced a viral infection into the shoots, so all-in-all, best removed and hope for better results this year.

The rest of the orchard needed little more than a minor snip here, and the total removal of a branch or two there, all in the pursuit of evenly spaced branches up the tree. Winter pruning is an ideal time to look for problems with tree shape and possible incidents of disease. The pics above show an obvious crossing branch which needed removal, and the tell-tale flaky bark of a possible fungal disease, which also needed cutting right out. Once again there's a lot of upright growth to deal with, and I'll be looking to tie down a lot of branches to a more fruitful level in the Spring.

A nice bonus from pruning this (mostly) young growth is the plentiful supply of 'scion wood' we now have, bagged up and ready to take to the 2nd National Apple Scion Wood Exchange at Buckingham Nurseries. We have Dabinett, Harry Masters' Jersey, Tremlett's Bitter and Yarlington Mill to take along, and hope to bring back...well something rare and interesting for grafting onto the rootstock we have on order.