Wisbech - Orchard Country

Yesterday I was in the Cambridgeshire market town of Wisbech. I was there today as well, but luckily I chose yesterday to explore the surrounding countryside, since today was a fair bit wetter. Wisbech is surrounded by literally hundreds of acres of orchards, consisting mostly of the squat bush trees favoured by dessert apple growers. Whilst it's true to say that these modern bush orchards with their neat rows of dwarf trees, lack the visual appeal of the old standard orchards, but I think they have an appeal all of their own, particularly out here on the flat fenlands.

The East of England Tourist Board have spotted the appeal of these orchards, and produced a Cycling Discovery Map called 'Apples and Ale' as an aid to their exploration (the 'Ale' part refers to the town's Elgood's Brewery, an imposing Georgian edifice on the River Nene). I didn't have a cycle with me, so can't vouch for the route's ease or otherwise, but it's pretty flat out here on the Fens so I can't see it being a problem for most folk.

The modern orchards are everywhere, but what really caught my eye was the Old Orchard at Wisbech St Mary, a non-commercial orchard with trees over 100 years old. A short walk up a (very muddy!) track, it's free to visit, and open all year round.
It's a beautiful space, even in the depth of Winter when the trees are perhaps at their craggy best. The neglected state of the trees is I guess, quite deliberate, and all the more welcoming for wildlife. Rotting apples litter the orchard floor, welcome food for birds at this time of the year. I'm sure I caught the colourful flash of a Woodpecker in the corner of my eye, as well as a multitude of more common bird life. It was nice to see that a bare patch of the orchard has been newly planted with a few rows of orchard fruit by the East of England Apples & Orchards Project, including the local Wisbech variety Lynn's Pippin. This is one place I look forward to revisiting in the Spring, when the trees will be covered in pinky-white blossom.

With this abundance of apple growing about, you would think that signs of cidermaking would not be too far away, but no-one I've heard of makes a drop around here. Of course the mighty Gaymers were originally from just up the road in Norfolk, and their presence can still be felt in the Autumn when lorry-loads of apples are seen on the roads hereabouts. This sign is at the edge of a field on the outskirts of Wisbech.

There are more of my photos from the Wisbech St Mary orchard, and many more lovely orchard pics besides, at the Orchards UK Flickr Group.

Racking Off & Topping Up

This weekend we began the time consuming process of racking the cider off the lees (the old yeast and apple deposits). Quite a dull job really, but enlivened by the chance of a little taster from each of the different batches of cider.

Racking off is the means by which we remove the young cider from the lees which, now fermentation has slowed right down, will have settles on the the bottom of the fermenter, leaving the clear-ish cider above. Some cidermakers never rack their cider, they presumably feel there is no need for this additional, perhaps risky process, but leaving a cider on the old yeast deposit has it's own risks, and may adversely affect the flavour of the cider if left for too long. We feel it's a job worth doing if only for our peace of mind, and it's actually quite a satisfying thing to do, with the feeling that you are somehow 'cleansing' your cider.

For racking we have a very low-tech piece of equipment, The Big Wooden Spoon. Ridiculously large, totally impractical as a culinary tool, but a few coats of varnish and a length of food-grade tubing turns this into the ideal racking-off tool. It's a job which can't be rushed, if the flow is too fast not only will sediment be sucked up, but you also run the risk of agitating the cider and driving off any dissolved CO2, essential to help protect the cider from oxidisation and other potential problems. During the transfer a small sample of the cider is taken to check that all is well, and this is the opportunity to taste it's cidery potential.

We managed to rack almost half our ciders before the pub beckoned, and it was very interesting tasting the different batches. We aim to blend the different apple varieties during pressing, so that each individual fermenter has more or less the same flavour profile. Even so, we found that each container we racked off was subtly different. One was a fair bit more tannic than the others, perhaps more Bulmers Norman went into this one. Others were slightly sharper, and there was one in particular which was a little sweeter and fruitier than the rest. I'm very pleased with the flavour and condition at this stage, all the ciders have a light 'prickle' of CO2 which will help to keep them fresh into the Summer, and they all seem to have enough 'bittersweet' character to mature nicely over the next few months.

Stake Out...

Yesterday, I was forced to buy a bundle of new tree stakes, and I thought I'd make note of the reason why here, as it may prove instructive. The cider varieties we planted are all on the semi-dwarfing rootstock M26, which owing to it's lack of vigour requires that the trees are staked and tied for at least the first few years of their life. This prevents the tree from rocking in the wind and damaging the root ball, and failure to do this would almost certainly have resulted in our precious trees being uprooted in the strong gales we have experienced recently.

The stakes we used initially were a square section of tannalised softwood (see left-hand pic) bought from a large DIY store. They seemed to be just the job when we bought them, but proved slightly less so when we tried to drive them into the ground. The square section is not the strongest of profiles for this kind of work, and some broke at weak points whilst we tried to lump-hammer them in. Over the last couple of years I've regularly bumped into some of the posts with the mower, and in one case it snapped at the base as a result. All in all, not very impressive and it was time to replace these lightweight pretenders with the real thing. The stakes we went for are Gardman Tree Stakes (1.2m x 35mm, pressure treated, FSC softwood), a round profile stake, as shown in the right-hand pic. These have gone in much better, and are much sturdier in the ground than the previous stakes, and should hold our trees firmly enough until the day they can stand on their own strong roots.

A New Northamptonshire Orchard

The remnants of old, often neglected orchards can be spotted in many of our neighbouring villages. Indeed we've taken advantage of some of these to make our own 'local' cider. It's much rarer indeed to find new orchards being established, particularly in the East Midlands, and certainly not on any kind of 'commercial' scale. It was therefore a huge pleasure to hear of the establishment of a new large-scale orchard, not too far away in the North-East of the county.

Lyveden New Bield is a National Trust owned Elizabethan pleasure garden, situated in an isolated part of rural Northamptonshire near Oundle. The striking unfinished shell of the Lodge, and the gardens with their unusual spiral viewing mounds are perhaps the main reason people visit this peaceful site, but there is now another attraction with the recently completed restoration of the traditional orchard.

The National Trust have painstakingly restored the orchard on it's original site, using the same varieties of fruit planted by Sir Thomas Tresham over 400 years ago. The orchard is a text-book example of fruit tree planting and layout, with a mix of apples, pears, plums, and other traditional orchard fruit. The trees are well staked, guarded, and kept free of weeds, but the grass between the rows has been left un-mowed, providing an undisturbed habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife. The whole vista can be viewed from the bank which runs along the ornamental canal, and closer inspection reveals that all the trees have been labelled with a short description. I was particularly interested in the variety Golden Harvey Apple, also known as Brandy. Evidence of a 400 year old cidermaking tradition in Northamptonshire? I like to think so.

The trees at Lyveden appear to be on old-fashioned 'standard' rootstock, and given a few years of careful management and healthy growth, should develop into the most wonderful traditional orchard of a type rarely seen outside of the West Country and Three Counties. I can hardly wait to see this fledgling orchard develop over the coming years.

The Fruitwise Guide to Apple Tree Pruning

Regular contributor to the ukcider discussion group, Stephen Hayes, has recently uploaded a very useful series of videos on apple tree pruning. They can be viewed on Stephen's YouTube Channel here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=stephenhayesuk.

Hampshire based Stephen and his partner Julia, established an orchard of heritage apple varieties in the 90's, and have subsequently amassed a great deal of practical experience in the management of fruit trees, including a number of cider varieties. Short of attending one of the hands-on pruning courses which are run around this time of year, this is the best bit of pruning advice you're likely to find. Stephen has a very watchable style and I can't recommend this series of video workshops highly enough. Whilst there are plenty of books available which go a long way towards explaining the theory of pruning, there really is nothing better than seeing the process in the flesh. I hope that Stephen continues to share his knowledge and experience with us over the coming years.