The Fall & Rise of a Bramley's Seedling

When we first viewed the property that would eventually become our home, it really was love at first sight. What was slightly amusing about that first viewing though, and has become something of a running joke between us, was that when we discussed the property in the pub later, mulling over the pros and cons as you do, I could only really remember the garden with any clarity, and the small overgrown orchard at the top in particular. "So what did you think of the kitchen then?"... "Kitchen!... err, what kitchen was that? What about that nice little orchard though..."

This will have come as no great surprise to Karen, I've never been much of a home bird, and of course the prospect of serious cidermaking and a bit of space for an orchard were at the forefront (as well as most of the foreback and sides) of my mind at the time. This place came with a stone walled ciderhouse (aka the garage) and a ready-made orchard, who needed a kitchen!

Back then, almost all of our neighbours had similar plantings, mostly cooking apples, Bramley's Seedling as far as I could tell. Remnants of what would have been a much lager orchard associated with the nearby 'Big House' and the workers cottages that served it. Ours was more of a mixed-bag, a true cottage garden orchard with pear, dessert and cooking varieties, covering all bases which was often the case when householders actually relied on their home grown crop for cooking and preserving. Sadly most of these trees, and the orchard in general, had seen far better days. Even a cursory examination of the trees revealed too much rot and bad pruning, a legacy of old age and more recent horticultural neglect. In fact most of the fruit had a disappointing tendency to rot on the tree before reaching anything like full ripeness. I did consider leaving things as they were, to decay naturally for the benefit of wildlife, but this was a long-term project and the orchard had to be of some benefit to us too. We decided to re-plant the orchard with new stock grafted with varieties that would be useful to us. So a weekend of heavy chainsaw action ensued...

As you can see in this photo, some of the trees were in the 'Autumn' (if not deep Winter) of their long lives. Completely hollowed-out with rot, unproductive, and sadly in no condition to restore through judicious pruning or top-working with new graft wood. The one exception was our own specimen of Bramley's Seedling. This tree was also showing signs of neglect, a slightly unconventional 'wishbone' shape to the main framework, and way too much upright and irritatingly out of reach growth. Nevertheless it was healthy, vigorous, and prone to carrying a decent enough crop of sound (and of course very useful) fruit. By the time Spring came around the following year, it also revealed itself as an absolute beauty of delicate pink blossom, a feature we've looked forward to with great anticipation every year since. This tree would most definitely be a keeper!

Over the years the orchard has developed, with new plantings of Dabinett, Harry Masters' Jersey, Yarlington Mill and others, but the big old Bramley Apple has always been the heart of the orchard. A sturdy old friend, beautiful in the Spring, reliably productive almost every Autumn, and the tree has benefitted hugely from a bit of long-overdue 'tlc'. Much of the best fruit was (inevitably) just out of reach for careful hand-picking, so the tree has had several quite serious pruning sessions to reduce congestion and height, and remove much of the unproductive upright growth. Meanwhile, almost all of the neighbouring fruit trees have now sadly gone. The old but attractive standard orchard that once spread across several gardens has all but disappeared. This, if anything, makes our own venerable Bramley Apple tree even more of a precious survivor to us.

More recently our Bramley Apple, and the orchard in general, has come under a good deal of stress. The infamous Rockingham Forest Cider Hens were given the free-run of the garden, and needless to say they took full advantage of it. Scratching up what was once a well-tended grassy swathe in the orchard, and depositing in turn an exotic selection of pernicious weeds in its place. More importantly, a former paddock at the top border of the orchard has gradually evolved to become a small area of shady woodland, with mature trees that overhang our own semi-dwarfing specimens to such a degree that some are no longer thriving as they should do. The old Bramley had a very good prune some four years ago and was looking better than it's ever done, you could almost throw a cap through it! But unfortunately it now competes for light, water, and nutrients with these much larger trees, and has sometimes struggled to maintain the healthy leaf covering of old. The apples, whilst still plentiful, occasionally suffer from scab and bitter pit too due to the radically changed habitat.

The plain truth is, the orchard is not what it was, nor indeed what we hoped it would be. Around a third of the area is now what I would regard as 'woodland margin' rather than open orchard. Having said that, as far as the garden and our outlook on it is concerned, a tree is a tree, and we're happy enough with how things stand. Or at least we were until very recently...

On the eve of my birthday this year, Storm Francis made landfall and whipped violently across the country. Quite a howler for sure, but certainly no worse than previous lashings that the house and garden have endured without significant damage. However, the next day Karen noticed that something had changed in the orchard, so we went to explore. The sight that greeted us came as something of a shock, and was for me at least, really quite upsetting!

Unfortunately for us, the Bramley was having one of it's best years for some time, very well leafed, and carrying a heavy crop of moderately sized apples. For my own part, I'd planned to prune out some of the congestion at the heart of the tree the previous year, but for various reasons it never happened. I don't doubt that if I'd done this work at the time, the tree might still be standing now, which of course makes this something of a cautionary tale! So, what to do now?...

When an old apple tree falls in an orchard there are perhaps three realistic ways forward. In a commercial orchard the tree would most likely be removed entirely, the space used to re-plant with new stock. It's also possible to re-erect a tree that's fallen but still sufficiently rooted, but the bigger the tree, the more difficult it is to raise it, and perhaps more importantly, it can be a real trial keeping it upright and safe against future storms. We felt neither of these options were appropriate, even though the main tap root of the tree is intact.

A fallen tree in a Heritage Orchard or large garden is a different matter, and even if the main root has broken, it's sometimes the case that a recumbent tree will re-root from wood touching the earth and put up new, healthy growth. These living fallers can be long-lived and very attractive if handled correctly. Indeed the original 'mother' tree in Southwell, the tree that all Bramley's originate from, our own included, was struck by lightening and fell over 100 years ago and yet still survives (albeit it too is now in its final years, the root system finally succumbing to Honey Fungus). This was broadly our plan, we just needed to work out the best way forward.

Since the tree was still rooted, and in no danger of falling any further, we mulled things over for a few weeks before enlisting the help of a local tree specialist and his chainsaw. This also gave us the chance to pick some of the better apples for storage, and clear up some of those which littered the orchard floor. The reason we hadn't heard the tree falling was presumably because it had settled onto its thick canopy of branches quite slowly. This meant that there was very little damage to the tree or root system (though sadly one of our hapless cider apple cultivars took the full weight of the tree and will now need removing), making it an ideal candidate for trimming, re-shaping, and preparing for life as a recumbent apple tree.

So here we see the first stage of the regeneration of the tree. The two main parts of the trunk have been left in their entirety, whilst most of the upper growth has been removed. This is not the trees final form, I'll likely remove a bit more wood in time, but given the shock the tree has experienced thus far, it's better to leave some of the leafy growth as a sap-draw and see what develops next year.

Even in such a short time, and at the very end of what might be regarded the trees growth period, several new shoots have already 'broken' on one of the main trunks. Which is all to the good as we don't know how this tree will eventually look, and the more options we have for later pruning and shaping, the better. Given that one of the trunks doesn't actually touch ground, the tree may have a tendency to roll a little as new growth increases the weight, so we've put a temporary prop under one of the trunks, a stronger, more permanent solution can wait until next year.

So hopefully we've securec the future of our beloved Bramley for a few more years, and if I make a good job of the restorative pruning over the next couple of years, it may eventually become an attractive, dare I say more 'interesting' part of our small orchard.

Surplus Books For Sale

You know how it is. Rooting around on the dusty shelves of a second hand bookshop, looking for nothing in particular, but with half an eye on your chosen specialist subject. In this case, the old apples'n'pears geezer. The search, often as not, proves fruitless. But every now and then, you spot something interesting. Something interesting and ideally not too expensive, maybe even a bargain. Another hour of your life pencilled down in the Ledger of Life as 'Not Entirely Wasted'. Result!

So you get your new-old book home, and after a cursory flick through the pages, admiring the pretty colour plates, marvelling at the wide range of toxic chemicals available to orchardists of old, you nestle it comfortably onto the bookshelf next to that other copy of the same book you bought a few years ago... damn!

Now this wouldn't be an issue if I was a serious collector of books. Perhaps this newly bought copy is in better condition. Maybe it sports a dog-eared dust jacket I hadn't previously owned. Like as not, it's an entirely different edition, a rare 1946 copy, made from poor quality War Standard paper rather than the common as muck Velum pre-war editions. The content will of course be entirely the same...

I'm not a serious collector, so every now and then I like to clear out any unnecessary duplications for nothing more than the price I payed plus a little postage and packing. Top quality cider or perry works too in this regard.

The Fruit Garden Displayed (RHS, 1974 edition) - These are common, I've already got a slightly later edition, and a tatty harback (possible) 1st edition from 1951. Still very usueful, and worth having if only for the fascinating adverts at the back. Cost me £1.50.

CAMRA Good Cider Guide - David Kitton (Alma Books, 1987) - Useful in its day, but more of a historical reference book now. Very little editorial, but one of the better gazeteers of producers at the back. Cost me £0.99.

Modern Fruit Growing - W.P Seabrook (Ernest Benn Ltd, 8th Edition 1947) - A lovely little book covering all aspects of commercial fruit growing (though mostly apples), and featuring some nice b/w photos, and a great selection of vintage advertising at the back. I've already got a slightly earlier dust-jacketed edition. Cost £3.00

Good homes please, no dealers, and if you've already got a good copy, please leave this one for someone who hasn't. Leave a comment, or contact through the website if you're interested.

Ale & Apples... though mostly Apples to be fair!

The Rockingham Forest Cider Apple Mountain continues to surge tectonically upwards, causing a good deal of interest in the village, particularly from horse owners! It's currently a single variety mountain, consisting almost exclusively of Yarlington Mill, a vintage quality bittersweet cider apple which we use to create our popular Red Kite Cider.

Every weekend is orchard/pressing time now, and I'm pleased to say that our compact picking team has risen to the substantial challenge ahead. We've even got a new trainee, young and fit, all the way from Grantham, a little wet behind the ears, but willing to get his hands dirty in the name of good cider. There he is on the right, taking a well earned nap on the trailer with one of our veteran pickers Susan. Consider yourself fully initiated into the Guild of Master Pankers sir.

Hard work like this should be rewarded with a bit of hard play, so with the Yarlys secured it was off to the Fleece Inn in nearby Bretforton for a relaxing drink in the orchard garden. The Fleece is a truly great destination any day of the year, but this weekend had the added attraction of their annual Ale & Apple Festival. Yowzah!


A fine display of Dessert and Culinary Apples in the Ale & Cider tent.



The Cider Bar - Favourite of the day was the Gregg's Pitt Aylton/Blakeney Red Perry, closely followed by the Olivers Medium Cider. The Fleece Inn Cider was good too. The Plum Jerkum.... interesting!

 

The press was fully wound down from an earlier pressing, and showing little activity other than a healthy population of local Wasps.

 

The antique Scratter, made in Somerset at the foundry of Albert Day.



Susan struggles under the weight of a Newtons Wonder from the Fleece Inn orchard. I think she may have taken this home...

 

The famous Sweet'n'Savoury Pastie, one half Meat'n'Veg, the other appropriately Apple'n'Custard. Delicious. Unless of course you're not expecting it to be sweet'n'savoury!



Best Dressed Apple Picker

Today we've been harvesting Bramley Apples from our own mature tree. It's probably true to say that they're not fully ripe yet, but I wanted to get them into store before the winds whip up later in the week and blow them all off. Under-ripe Bramleys will come good in storage, bruised or damaged fruit simply won't store for any great length of time, and we want to still be cooking with these Bramleys well into the new year.

Over the last few years I've pruned out quite a bit of wood from the interior of this tree, and also taken out one or two of the tallest branches. As a result, the fruit is much less 'scabby' than it was previously, and we can also reach almost all the fruit with the aid of a fruit picker.

The fruit picker we used today has been on loan from sister-in-law Susan, one half of the Aylestone Picking & Panking Team, for a few years now. I believe she may want it back now, which meant it was high time we did a bit of repaired work!

It's a top-of-the-range Wolf picker, but even the Rolls Royce of orchard tools wear out eventually, and so it was with the collecting bag which hangs at the business end of the tool. As you can see, Karen pulled out all the stops, knitting (I think that's the correct term) this delightful, and very 'now' floral print bag as replacement for the rather functional original. I think Susan will be pleased with the result, and I hope she gets many hours of picking pleasure from it herself.

Back on the Green Horse

Green Horse - One of the few!

One of the good things about harvesting fruit from a truly mixed orchard, is that for every tree having an 'off' year and bearing little or no fruit, there's likely to be something else fully turned 'on' as it were. It's not good for consistency, but it means there's always something to press.

There are two Green Horse perry pear trees in Johns 'Far Orchard', one of which has cropped very heavily for us for the last couple of years. The other tree is tucked away in the corner, close to a row of conifers which compete for water and nutrients, consequently it's never had much of a crop on it. This year, Green Horse is having an 'off' year, which means instead of the usual half a ton or more of fruit, we've got barely four sacks of pears to play with. To fill our press we need something like seven sacks of fruit, so there will be no single variety Green Horse Perry for the 2012 season. A great shame as its one of my favourite perrys, even more so because its specific gravity came out at a whopping 1.064, up from 1.050 last year. I guess this is down to a combination of factors, including the dry Summer, optimum ripeness (these pears really needed pressing today), and the paucity of the crop.

To fill the press, and go most of the way towards filling a large fermenter, we pressed the sharp Green Horse pears with a few sacks of another more tannin rich perry pear (another whopping gravity of 1.068). This will be topped up tomorrow with a vigorously fermenting 25 litres of Blakeney Red from last weekends pressing session, making a three pear blend which will hopefully taste great, and won't be as lumpy as our last blending experiment.

The weekend harvest included our first few sacks of apples from one of two Blenheim Orange trees we'll be using to produce a nice sharp blending cider. This will be used for much needed acidity, and as a fermenting starter for the Yarlington Mill and Vilberie apples later in the season. There's perhaps one more perry pear pressing session ahead (Red Longdon is having an 'on' year), then it's full steam ahead with the cidermaking.

Discovery - To Buy or Not To Buy...

Current orchard gossip suggests that apples are ripening earlier this year than ever before. I view this news with a mixture of mild curiosity and blind panic. I'm really not ready to press apples yet. Can orchard fruit please stop ripening.

This untimely rumour, put about by the heavyweight intellectuals of Radio 4 no less, needed some further investigation, so I've been out 'in the field' as it were, investigating.

Yesterday I went for a short walk, from the sleepy Northamptonshire village of Holcot, over the causeway of Pitsford Reservoir and up the hill to Brixworth, home of the eponymous Pate. It was a pleasant walk in fine Summer sunshine, all the more so when I finally managed to get off the busy main road and strike out across parched pasture and stubbly Wheat fields. The presence of the Reservoir helps to boost the wildlife count in this area. I was particularly pleased to disturb as many Brown Hares as I can remember seeing in recent years (that'll be three if you must know).

So much for grassy fields, walking along grass verges has little to recommend it. Fast traffic, rough ground, limited views, all make for very dull walking indeed. On the plus side, many verges double up as linear orchards, populated by a rag-tag of wild grown apple trees often seeded from a causally thrown apple core (something I make a habit of doing myself). These pip-grown apple trees are a bit of a genetic lottery, never growing true from the apple they came from. For the most part they're likely to be of little value, but fun can be had in the possibility that one or two may just be the next Cox Orange Pippin, or Yarlington Mill. The road which climbs from the reservoir towards Brixworth has a few likely specimens, though I was more interested in their stage of ripeness than whether they'd make my fortune with the supermarkets.

The first tree I came to was laden with small-ish fruit, green with a rosy blush. These were sweet and crunchy in a Jonagold kind of way, not quite fully ripe, but pleasant enough to eat. The next tree yielded medium size fruit as sour as anything I've put in my mouth. Truly horrible. On to the next tree which had larger fruit, hard, sweet and low in acidity like a Spartan. Not too bad, but still a little way off ripeness. The final tree was classic Crab Apple, small green fruit, perhaps even sharper than the previous sour specimen. Nasty, and a very good example of why it's rarely a good idea to follow the frequently given advice of adding a few crabs to your cider for their tannin. My advice is to always taste first, you really wouldn't want these in anything you're planning to drink.

A mixed bag then. I probably wouldn't have expected to find edible apples in the hedgerow at this time of year, but there are varieties which ripen this early, including Beauty of Bath and Irish Peach (see here: http://youtu.be/63CHZ6c7QVU), so perhaps we're not that far off.

One variety I can fairly comfortably use to gauge the progress of the season is the early variety Discovery, which usually appears in the better grocers round here a week or so into September. I bought my first clutch of Discovery this Friday, maybe a week or two earlier than usual. I'm a big fan of Discovery. I love the aromatic quality of this apple, and delicate floral flavour and soft acidity. Sadly I've been disappointed with most of what I've bought in recent years. Under-ripe apples are never exciting, so I wasn't expecting great things from this latest purchase. I'm pleased to say though, that despite the pips not being as deep a brown as I'd like, the flavour of these are very good, and probably not far off their peak. I recommend you get out there and buy some while they're available.

So an interesting bit of 'research', from which I'm none the wiser to be honest. I really do hope that the season is not as advanced as predicted. I wasn't joking when I said I wasn't ready to press apples yet. There's work to be done in the ciderhouse yet...

The Rockingham Forest Cider Guide to Orchard Pests & Diseases

Orchardists of a nervous disposition, look away now....

This gruesome catalogue of orchard pests and diseases were found during a single morning inspection earlier this week. There could be much more to find, I haven't managed to inspect every tree yet! We've now got over 30 apple trees planted around the garden, varying in age from 2-5 years old. Some of the older trees have put on a good bit of growth since planting, so keeping on top of potential problems like the ones shown here has become more of a task. The good news is that many of the more common pests such as Aphid seem to be much less prevalent on the more mature trees, so I'm hoping we may see less of this kind of thing in the future.

Rosy Apple Aphid - Vile purple sap-sucking critters. Working in tandem with Ants, which deliver them onto the tree, they cause leaves and shoots to curl in a most unattractive way, and stunt fruit growth. Yes, that's right, these bastards are quite literally stealing our cider! Control: Squish between thumb and forefinger, again and again and again...



Brown Scale Insect - My thanks to good folk on the Cider Worshop for helping identify these nasties. The warty shells shown here are the remains of a once thriving colony of sap-sucking insects which have now moved out ready to begin sucking again this Summer. Control: Removed with thumbnail but likely to recur, so vigilance (and possibly an insecticide) necessary.



Woolly Aphid - Ooh! I really hate these. More sap-sucking action, this time concealed within a blanket of candyfloss (Note the drops of honeydew). The damage these critters do can sometimes lead to incidence of Canker, one of the most deadly fungal diseases known to apple trees. Control: Rub out, remove, destroy, attack with a toothbrush if neccesary. Show no mercy!

 

Powdery Mildew - One or two of our Harry Masters' trees are susceptible to this nasty disease. Long, dry spells (like the one we're having now) encourage Powdery Mildew. Some trees being overhung by our mature Bramley probably doesn't help either! Control: Nothing for it but pruning out. Burn prunings, clean secateurs thoroughly.



Green Aphid - Not a major pest for us, but really bad infestation can lead to reduced vigour or even stunted shoot growth. Control: Squish, and hey, if a few Ants get squished too, what of it!



Grubs - Ok, not very specific I know, but this could be one of many orchard pests. Totrix Moth, Apple Sawfly, or most likely given the black, sticky 'frass' shown on this picture, the dreaded Blastobasis Moth. Control: Err! Still working on this one...

Ladybirds - Not a pest, but not much bloody use it seems. Less shagging, more chomping please...

My Perfect Tart!

Our carefully stored mountain of Bramley Apples shows little sign of diminishing. They've stored very well in the cool of the porch, free from frost damage and cheeky nibbling mice. Almost every day we're forced to convene a short brainstorming session, wracking our brains to think of what else we can use them for before they finally succumb to rot and the compost bin.

I've written before about the 'Holy Trinity' of apples, pastry and custard. A simple, perfect combination, and one we're loath to mess with too much. On this occasion, I broke my own golden rule, and risked contamination with a little pinch of spice. I'm usually a strict fundamentalist on this point. Cinnamon, No! Cloves, Absolutely Not! Nutmeg..... well, maybe just this once.

So, Bramley Apple Custard Tart it is then, with just a hint of Nutmeg because I'm equally hardcore about custard tarts. This recipe has come along at just the right time for us, what with the glut of rapidly deteriorating Bramleys, and a similar mountain of eggs from the ever reliable Rockingham Forest Cider Hens.

Line a deepish Flan Dish with Shortcrust Pastry (it doesn't have to be sweet), and blind bake at 180C until just cooked. Meanwhile, peel, core and chop a couple of medium sized Bramley Apples, and cook to a puree with a drop of water and sugar to taste. When the flan and apple puree have cooled a little, spread the puree onto the base of the flan.

Heat 400ml of Double Cream along with 50g of Golden Caster Sugar and a Vanilla flavouring of your choice. Vanilla Essence would be fine, but I used 25g of Vanilla Sugar, made up to the 50g with Golden Caster Sugar. Bring just to the boil and remove from the heat for a few minutes. Lightly beat 3 Large Egg Yolks with 1 Whole Egg, before whisking into the Cream. Pour the custard mix into the flan, dust with a little Nutmeg, and bake for an hour at 170C until the custard is cooked but still wobbly.

Quite one of the most delicious things I've ever put in my mouth, and that's saying something!

Rain Doesn't Stop Play

I was quite concerned about the weather today. It was certainly cold, though the sun poked its head out for a brief spell, but the promised downpour around 3pm never happened, and I managed to get everything pressed and cleaned down in good time. It was a pleasure to be pressing perry pears again, awesome yield, and no clogging of cloths. The local dessert apples pressed pretty well too, possibly thanks to a slightly different pressing regime. Instead of firing up the press and waiting until the gauge reaches the maximum 320psi, I decided to apply a little pressure, turn the press off and wait a while for the juice to stop flowing, before repeating several times. The result was a good juice yield, and no pulp oozing out of the cloths. Result!

So it's back to work for a couple of days rest, before attempting to scale the foothills of the Yarlington Mill mountain next weekend.

Apple Sunday

Things That Go Tump in the Night...

We're sticklers for tradition here at Rockingham Forest Cider, particularly when it comes to work in the orchard. Not for us the rattle and cough of petrol-driven apple harvesting machinery, or new-fangled tractor operated tree shakers. No, it's a good old fashioned panking pole, and hand-raulic picking and bagging-up for us, and don't our aching bodies know it!

John's trusty Series 3 Landrover assists with the removal of fruit from the muddy orchard, but that's about as high-tech as it gets. We'd happily use a Horse for the job if we could persuade one to work for Windfalls & Beer like Paul & Sue do, but they're a bit fussy these 'Orses...

Anyway, we were forced to get really old-fashioned this weekend when someone (who shall for the time being remain nameless, pending her cooking the dinner tonight...) skimped on the carrot sacks when she packed the car, and left us with a bit of a fruity dilemma. An afternoon spent shaking and picking in Worcestershire, apples everywhere, and not a single bag to receive the rosy harvest. We had a choice. Give up the job and retire early to the pub (verrrrry tempting I must say), or resort to the old Ciderland practice of forming an Apple Tump in the orchard, and bag it all up another day.

A Tump it was, and what a beautiful Tump it is if I do say so myself. The bigger pile of rosy apples are Dabinetts, a very high quality bittersweet cider apple which I spent most of the afternoon digging out of the long grass. The yellow apples are sharp, possibly bittersharp, and there to help lower the pH of the Yarlington Mill and Dabinett apples we'll be pressing in a week or two's time. Forming a Tump like this was a traditional way of 'sweating' the apples ahead of their journey to the ciderhouse. A week or two piled up in the orchard like this helped to ensure the apples were fully mature and ready for the press, with perhaps some moisture lost along the way to help ensure higher sugar levels in the juice.

Ours won't be there for long, and we've covered them over to protect from weather, wildlife and inquisitive walkers on the nearby Cotswold Way. We aim to collect them this Friday, and I've already posted a traditional Post-it note on the back door.... 'DON'T FORGET THE CARROT SACKS MISSUS'

Membrillo On My Mind

Lorne Gray of Northamptonshire foody blog Graze & Guzzle has recently put into words something that's been on my mind for some time. When exactly am I going to pinch some of our neighbours rapidly ripening Quince fruits.... Ok, that's not exactly what Lorne said, but his recent post on Membrillo certainly helped focus my mind on the our chronic 'Lack of Quince' situation.

It's a 'lack' that's been bothering me ever since we combined the Quincy loveliness of Membrillo, with a few thin slices of mature Manchego in a Barcelona tapas bar way back in the 90's. We don't grow Quince you see, and it's very rare to find Quince for sale in this country, so if you want to experience the fragrant loveliness of this strange fruit, you're jolly well going to have to find someone else who grows it. Even then you're going to have to talk them out of the fruit, unless of course they don't know what they've got...

My source of Quince fruit is a lovely, generous lady in nearby Medbourne, and she knows exactly what she's got! Luckily for me, this generous benefactor had already processed quite as much fruit as she could bear for one year, and I was welcome to take the remnants. Yay!

There are several things you can do with a handful of Quince. Simplest of all is to put them in a pretty bowl on a sunny windowsill and wait for the fruit to release their unique fragrance. Actually, this is probably a very good idea for the Quince novice. If you find the fragrance agreeable, you're ready to progress to the more advanced level of creating something edible from your fruit.

A few slices of Quince are likely to enhance any apple or pear based dessert, but if you really want to experience Quince Heaven, then Membrillo, or Quince Jam/Jelly is the fruits true vocation. I took Lornes recipe as a starting point, then largely ignored it.... sorry Lorne.

1.5 kg Ripe Quince (peeled, cored & sliced to give around 1kg of Quince flesh)
1 Lemon
1 large Bramley Apple (peeled, cored & sliced)
1 pint Dry Perry (or enough to barely cover the fruit)
1 kg Sugar

Slice the fruit into a pan containing the lemon juice to prevent browning (very tedious work, I really should add a Radio to the ingredients list). Add the perry and cook for 20 mins or so until reduced to pulpiness. Stir in the sugar and cook for a further 30 mins until well thickened and darkened to light golden.

Quince contains a lot of Pectin, so should almost certainly set well, but if you're concerned add a drop to a chilled dish to test the set as you would with jam. The Membrillo may taste a little too sharp at this stage, but rest assured that it will taste much more mellow when cooled.

Whilst hot, transfer to sterilised jam jars. This should keep for a good 6 months or more, and is excellent with strong cheese.

Ciderhouse News - Mid October

The weekend cidermaking started earlier than usual this week. On Thursday I collected the Kingston Black cider apples and Green Horse perry pears from Worcestershire, delivering them back to Rockingham Forest Cider HQ ready for pressing. The Kingston Blacks will be left to fully mature for a few weeks more before pressing, but the perry pears had already stood for a week following harvest, and were on the cusp of being overripe. We also pressed the apples and pears from Rockingham which will form this seasons Welland Valley Festival Special.

It was a long, hard day in the ciderhouse, but we were rewarded for our efforts with around 300 litres of cider and perry. The Green Horse pears have pressed with a similar sugar level to last years crop, giving a Specific Gravity of 1.050 (as measured with my shiny new German Hydrometer). This will produce a perry of around 6.4% abv, although only around 100 litres will actually be sold as a single variety perry. The rest will be used for blending with other perrys for our Rockingham Forest Perry.

The local Rockingham fruit had been left to mature slightly longer than absolutely necessary, resulting in a fair few apples and pears not making the grade due to rot. Not an ideal situation, but nevertheless I had high hopes for this fruit. There were four different varieties, all dessert fruit. An early, soft-fleshed apple with a lovely fragrance, though no great keeping quality; a crisp, sharpish eater, only just ripe at harvest; a probable Conference pear; and a greenish/golden russeted apple, almost certainly Egremont Russet. The russets made up the bulk of the fruit, and I'm expecting a soft tannin from them to add a welcome complexity to the blend. All that waiting around will have helped the sugar levels, and I was pleased to record a Specific Gravity of 1.058, giving a potential abv of 7.4%.

Once again we are relying on wild yeasts to get fermentation under way, and I'm pleased to say that after a worryingly slow start, it's all systems go with the Malvern Hills and Blakeney Red perrys. Phew! Fermentation is very slow in these perrys, possibly due to the extremely low nutrient levels in this very old, largely unmanaged orchard. Slow fermentation is considered a good thing for flavour, just so long as it remains slowly ticking over, and not stopped entirely. No sooner has one fermenter got fermenting, than the wait begins for another to get going. Green Horse is at the starting gate and ready for the off...

Tom Putt? Flower of the Town? - You Decide

One of the major attractions of an Apple Day event, is the chance to meet an apple 'expert', who may be able to positively identify your mystery garden fruit for you. It's a two-way service, with occasional rarities, or even 'lost' varieties coming to light, which is just about as exciting as it's possible to get for a pomologist I guess.

If you're lucky, you may be able to match up your specimen with one of the many examples on display, otherwise there's likely to be a small library of illustrated books on hand to help the identification process. Even then, a positive ID may be difficult, and there's always the chance your fruit will turn out to be a 'wilding' variety from a unique pip-grown tree. Apple identification is a fascinating, yet fiendishly difficult pastime. I know, I've tried it and failed on numerous occasions.

Which brings me to an apple which has been foxing me for a few years now. It's an aromatic, sharp, early apple, growing in the far corner of the orchard in Worcestershire. A rather pretty apple I think, with its green/yellow skin, and profusion of red stripes. Given that this is a mixed orchard, containing dessert, culinary, cider and perry varieties, we've tentatively classified this apple as Tom Putt, a dual purpose variety, often used for cider in it's native Devon. It certainly matches the description in Liz Copas 'A Somerset Pomona - The Cider Apples of Somerset', though less so the accompanying photograph it has to be said.

The fruit expert who attended the Brocks Hill Apple Day, was from the Northern Fruit Group, and he confidently identified these specimens as Flower of the Town, a native apple of Yorkshire. I have to say I'm not convinced of this, and I'm even less persuaded having seen the beautiful watercolour of a Tom Putt in the recently re-published 'The Apple Book' by Rosie Sanders. The resemblance is really quite striking, and it just seems more likely to me that a West Country dual purpose/cider apple would be planted in a Worcestershire orchard, than a Yorkshire dessert apple. So until proven otherwise, Tom Putt it is...

The Apple Book comes highly recommended. The watercolours really are stunning, and you can view a fascinating video of the work in progress on this YouTube Channel.

Happy Apple Day

Apple Day events are now in full swing ahead of the traditional 21st of October peak. We had our day in the sun yesterday, at Brocks Hill Visitors Centre in Leicestershire. After the hard graft of the orchard, it was a welcome opportunity to sit back, relax, and talk cider and perry with visitors to the event.

It really was a day in the sun too, with a lovely bit of late Summer sunshine to bring out the crowds. We had a good day, offering many samples, and selling a few gallons too. Diana Fegredo's beautiful cards were well received, and our small display of cider apples and perry pears made a nice change from the wide range of dessert and culinary fruit on show.

Our best sellers were the Medium Rockingham Forest Cider blend, and our last box of Mystery Perry. This picture shows the innovative box-tilting method we employed as the cider and perry got low towards the end of the day.

I'd like to say a big thank you to my Sister-in-Law Susan, who helped with the smooth running of the stall, organiser Helen Gregory for her great enthusiasm and hard work putting on the event, and David Bates of Welland Valley Vineyard for sorting out the licence. Let's hope that government funding cuts don't put paid to this and other important community events in future years.

Ciderhouse News - October

Apple & Pear trees continue to be shaken, and the fruit thereof continues to be pressed. It's exhausting work, but we're committed to getting the harvest in and making as much cider and perry as we possibly can. Because you're worth it...

This Sunday we'll be offering samples and sales of our Cider and Perry at the Brocks Hill Apple Day event in Oadby, Leicestershire. All being well, we'll have a good range of Cider Apples and Perry Pears to display, as well as a few examples from our small collection of stoneware cider jars, just so long as the table can take the weight! We also hope to have a selection of beautiful fruity cards from our friend Diana Fegredo.

Also in attendance will be Mel and Nigel of the Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project, and David Bates of Welland Valley Vineyard will be bringing along his wines and cider to try and to buy. There will also be an apple identification service, and best of all it's a free event. Apple Day events are occurring throughout the country, and you can find out what's what, when and where, on this handy website: Apple Day Events

Congratulations are in order for Kevin & Fiona at the Red Lion, Middleton for retaining their coveted position in the latest CAMRA Good Beer Guide. The 2011 edition of the guide is now available from good bookshops, but you won't need it to gain admission to 'The Red'. A good appreciation of fine ales, cider and perry is all that's required, though some skill at the skittles table would be helpful. Rockingham Forest Perry is currently available at the Red Lion.

...and finally, here's a picture of a three handled cider mug, or Tyg as they're better known, that I couldn't resist buying recently. It was made by Leonard Stockley of Weymouth, and features three handles (as is the custom), and the word 'Cider' written thrice around the mug, presumably so you don't forget what it's for. Lovely!