July - 'National Cider Festival Month'

It's official (1), July has been designated National Cider Festival Month. Yay!

I say 'National', to be fare we're talking mostly about the East Midlands..... Leicesterhire and Northamptonshire to be exact. Nevertheless, the hot and humid month of July is literally awash with cider festivals, which is jolly good news for those of us who like cider..... obviously!

The inaugural National Cider Festival Month (which is official (1) remember) kicks off with a Pork & Cider Festival (3rd - 5th) at the Victoria Inn in Northampton. 22 ciders are promised, along with 20 different varieties of sausage and other porky delights. Mmm! Pork, Cider, the classic combination. Killjoys can eat vegetarian fare and drink beer if they so choose.

There are no cider festivals that we know of the following weekend, but if you're getting withdrawal there's the Derby CAMRA Beer Festival (8th - 12th) to help plug the gap. A '...big range of ciders...' is promised, and I'm reasonably confident there will be some perry too.

Things take a turn for the better the following weekend, when the excellent Criterion Freehouse teams up with the equally fine Swan & Rushes to host a Cider & Cheese Festival (16th - 19th). Mmm! Cider, Cheese, a classic combination... you get the idea! We'll be sending two ciders to the Criterion for this well-established festival.

The final fling of the month is a new event at the award-winning Cow & Plough in Oadby, Leics. Over 30 ciders are promised here, with live bands, a BBQ, and free camping helping to make a weekend of it. We will also be sending a couple of ciders to this event.

So there you have it, cider festivals are King, and July will be the month when cider takes it's rightful place on the 'throne of delicious drinking'... OK, that'll do for now.

(1) - An official Rockingham Forest Cider promotion!

Chorizo a la Rockingham Forest Sidra

I often seek culinary inspiration at our local farm shop, Ashley Herb Farm. The latest eye-catching produce to appear in the chiller cabinet is a spicy Ashley Chorizo Sausage, combining locally reared pork and that most Spanish of spices, Paprika. This is a fresh sausage for cooking, a cured version is also promised later in the year.

Well I don't know about you, but when I've got a spicy sausage in my hand, my thoughts turn to balmy Spanish evenings, cruising for tapas. In the blink of an eye we had Patas Bravas; finely shredded dark Green Cabbage stir fried with Garlic, Chestnuts and a squeeze of Orange juice (Karen's speciality of the house); and of course Chorizo a la Sidra.

The recipe for the Chorizo tapa is hardly a recipe at all. Just fry slices of the sausage until browned a little, add a good slosh of Dry Cider, and the leaves stripped from a few sprigs of Thyme. Cook until the cider has reduced by around half and serve immediately. Eat slowly. You might like to put on a Flamenco record at this point.

Carnival of Ales & Ciders

We had a very good day out on Saturday at what will hopefully become Oundle's annual Carnival day. The procession was well supported by both floats and spectators, and the party continued at Oundle RFC until late.

The Beer Festival at the rugby club was also a huge success, with our three barrels of cider and all the real ales selling out well before closing time. This can only have been helped by the extremely efficient bar staff, who had a very good system going which meant vast quantities of ale and cider flowed, without any of the tiresome need to queue at the bar. Always a bonus.

Congratulations to festival organiser Lee Green and his hard working team on an excellent event. The only downer on the day was the British & Irish Lions leaving their magnificent fightback against the Springboks just a little too late to win the day.

Orchard Update - June

In the few days break between one beer festival and another, there's been just enough time to barrel up more cider, and to give the orchard a really thorough examination for signs of pests and disease.

First the good news. We have many more apples this year, with around half of the trees bearing something worth picking. Having said that, I'd say fruit set has been quite poor this year, with even the ever-reliable James Grieve showing only a moderate crop. I usually have to thin the fruit on this tree by up to 50% to get reasonable sized apples, but this year I doubt I'll need to bother. I'd heard on the grapevine that pollination hadn't been great this Spring, and my observations seem to bear this out.

Green Aphid continues to be a problem, but one which is easily dealt with so long as you're not squeamish. The same goes for the minor but persistent outbreaks of Rosy Apple Aphid, which are easily squished between fingers when spotted. Ray kindly did a bit of squishing at the weekend. He seems keen, I'll get him to do a bit of digging next time...

Other finds were a very pretty Caterpillar, chomping its way through an apple leaf. I've left it there for now, but if I find out it's a serious pest it's days are numbered. More serious was the discovery of our first instance of Canker, a nasty fungal disease which can spread through a tree and eventually kill it if not dealt with. The only treatment for Canker is pruning out infected wood, which is what I've done, hopefully removing all the disease. I'll have to keep a close eye on this tree to make sure the Canker doesn't re-appear further up the stem.

Last week a decent sized Grass Snake was spotted in our neighbours garden, creating quite a commotion with the ladies! This week it was the Hens turn to get into a flap after encountering a much smaller reptile amongst the shrubbery. Sadly the baby Grass Snake was a goner by the time we manged to rescue it from three vicious jabbing beaks. Hens don't like snakes, though in the case of Grass Snakes, I'm guessing the feeling is mutual.

Carnival Time

The attractive market town of Oundle is the place to be this Saturday (20th June) afternoon. The Oundle Carnival returns after a 30 year gap, and looking at the website, there appears to be quite a bit going on, including music, a WW2 fly past, and fireworks to finish the day.

What's not mentioned on the website is the mini beer festival at the Oundle Rugby Club, where we will be delivering a few barrels of our Rockingham Forest Cider. The final barrel of Welland Valley Special will also be going to this event, so if you missed it at the Welland Valley Beer Festival, this will be the last chance to try our most local of ciders.

As an added bonus, and a huge motivating factor in our own attendance at the Carnival, the first British & Irish Lions test match against South Africa will be broadcast in the Rugby club bar from 2pm. Yes, that's the same bar where the beer festival takes place. Now that's what I call great planning.