It's been a Mop and Bucket kind of a weekend. The ciderhouse has received a full top-to-bottom clean ahead of the first pressing of the season, which will hopefully be next weekend if we can catch the Malvern Hills perry pears in time. Word is that some pears have already fallen, so I'm just hoping that the high winds we're experiencing this week haven't brought the lot down before I manage to get to the orchard on Friday.
I'm combining the trip with a visit to the Orchard Centre at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, which is hosting a day In Praise of the Perry Pear on Saturday. I'll be taking along a few of our own perrys to get feedback and advice from the experts, and hopefully a few of the unknown perry pears from the orchard for identification purposes. Around 50 perry pear varieties will be on display, so I'm hoping I can match up one or two of our own on the day. There will also be perrys available to sample and buy on the day, so I'll be sampling and buying too. It would be rude not to.
We still have cider and perry available at the Red Lion Middleton and Wing Hall Cafe Bar and Shop, and there are one or two events still to come where our cider and perry will be available. We'll be sending a box of our most recent perry to the Billesdon Local Food Lunch (3rd Oct), for which tickets are required, and will have cider and perry to sample and buy at the forthcoming Brocks Hill Apple Day (10th Oct). We'd like to thank David Bates of
Welland Valley Vineyard for sorting out the licencing for this years event. David will have bottles of his own excellent Roundhead Cider available to buy on the day too.
In other news, the Rockingham Forest Cider Flock has increased again with the arrival of 'Molly Maid' our beautiful new Maran Hybrid. She'll be company for 'Chucky-Egg' who despite repeated efforts to sidle up to the 'Big Hens', has so far failed to find an acceptable place in the
existing pecking order. Bad Girls! Young Chucky is laying small brown eggs at the moment, but has still managed to squeeze out this delicious 'double-yolker'. Good Girl!
In related news, the ever dwindling grape harvest has now been officially cancelled... Very tasty eggs though!
I'm combining the trip with a visit to the Orchard Centre at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, which is hosting a day In Praise of the Perry Pear on Saturday. I'll be taking along a few of our own perrys to get feedback and advice from the experts, and hopefully a few of the unknown perry pears from the orchard for identification purposes. Around 50 perry pear varieties will be on display, so I'm hoping I can match up one or two of our own on the day. There will also be perrys available to sample and buy on the day, so I'll be sampling and buying too. It would be rude not to.
We still have cider and perry available at the Red Lion Middleton and Wing Hall Cafe Bar and Shop, and there are one or two events still to come where our cider and perry will be available. We'll be sending a box of our most recent perry to the Billesdon Local Food Lunch (3rd Oct), for which tickets are required, and will have cider and perry to sample and buy at the forthcoming Brocks Hill Apple Day (10th Oct). We'd like to thank David Bates of
Welland Valley Vineyard for sorting out the licencing for this years event. David will have bottles of his own excellent Roundhead Cider available to buy on the day too.In other news, the Rockingham Forest Cider Flock has increased again with the arrival of 'Molly Maid' our beautiful new Maran Hybrid. She'll be company for 'Chucky-Egg' who despite repeated efforts to sidle up to the 'Big Hens', has so far failed to find an acceptable place in the
existing pecking order. Bad Girls! Young Chucky is laying small brown eggs at the moment, but has still managed to squeeze out this delicious 'double-yolker'. Good Girl!In related news, the ever dwindling grape harvest has now been officially cancelled... Very tasty eggs though!
Its all rather exciting at the moment eh, although how did you get all your kegs to stand in line like that? Very well trained:-)
ReplyDeleteCleaning out the ciderhouse, Exciting? Blimey Jez, life must move pretty slowly down Hampshire way...
ReplyDeletePicking perry pears and visiting the Orchard Centre, now that's what I call exciting.
Ha ha... but what happens after the cleaning???
ReplyDeleteHave been gathering windfalls from Fruitwise for about a week and a half now (holding back on the cider fruit - the last bit of rain seems to be doing them good).
Varieties are definitely falling out of turn this year though!
It was just nice to see so many shiny (empty) tubs ready to be filled:-)